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Spanish Socialist Party election losses 2011 – Economic inadequacies fail to mitigate the effects of the global crisis
With the Conservative Party already in power in the UK on the back of Labour’s struggles to deal with the results of the global economic problems effectively, the development is a further continuation of the losses leftist political parties have experienced. However, the reality, which most commentators seem to forget all too easily, is that the damage to the global economy came as a result of slack political confines for banks and businesses in the US under a centre-right Republican party leadership.
Despite the well known cause of the global economic crisis, there have been a number of cases where it fell to left and centre-left political parties to deal with the results of the situation. History seems to be proving them ineffective at plugging the gaps fast enough and rebuilding before things get too deep to bail.
The Spanish Socialist Party’s massive losses in local and regional elections are the most recent example of this. With youth unemployment standing at 45% there was a ground swell of discontent throughout the country leading to large scale demonstrations and sit-ins. The most important question for labour and socialist parties alike is what they can learn from the situation for their long term regeneration.
One of the biggest things they need to do is to set in place better global economic monitoring practices to flag early warning signs of inflated price bubbles in globally sensitive economic regions. This will give them more time to plan for the oncoming difficulties. Warning signs can lead to banking practices that disassociate economic dependency on dangerously inflated markets, acting as a cushioning apparatus for the inevitable.
However, and perhaps more importantly, the economy should shift all budgeting away from non-job creation activities like war, aerospace investment and excessive welfare practices (in Spain, under a socialist government the latter was most significant) to focus all attention on employment. Once the crisis is over, budgets can return to the previous mixed focus approach.
With appropriate communication of plans and intentions to media and society, labour, socialist and other left and centre-left political parties should be in a better position to keep the economy buoyant until global economic situations improve without losing support.
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