Swing to the Right -

Swing to the Right - The US and Germany aren't the only countries whose left-wing parties are in disordered retreat.

According to left-leaning Ha'aretz, Likud is reeling in Israel:

With less than a week to go before the elections, Labor is a dangerous freefall. For the first time in the campaign, the largest party in the 15th Knesset could find itself with less than 19 seats in the 16th, according to the latest Ha'aretz/Dialogue poll. The anti-unity move failed. The latest zigzag in the party's propaganda blitz - emphasizing socio-economic issues - made little or no difference. Even wheeling out Shimon Peres as an alternative candidate served only to damage the standing of party chairman Amram Mitzna. The street fights and ego battles among the Labor leadership, primarily between Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Mitzna, are scaring off the few remaining voters who still support Labor.

And, as in the US, the swing is most pronounced among the young:

The deeper one digs into the bowels of the Labor Party, the more desperate the situation looks. Among first-time voters, for example, 0.0 percent (yes, zero percent) say they intend to vote Labor. Compare that to 46 percent of these 18 to 22-year-olds who say they will vote Likud. Even if first-time voters make up just 7 percent of the electorate, the trend is clear.

Watch for the results in Israel. And if we move into Iraq, and all goes according to plan (successful liberation, uncovering of WMDs, release of details of Hussein's torture state), look for left-wing governments in Germany to get rolled way back, and for further gains by the right in Poland, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium...

Posted by Mitch at January 26, 2003 01:12 PM