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“Victory” for Hollande Within the final agreement we had a “victory” for Social Democracy and the increasing vote for left parliamentary movements grouped around the Hollande government in France. The package that he managed to win amounted to 1% of European GDP and is firmly based on the need to bail out the banks and bondholders. The victory shows the emptiness of the social democratic alternative. It doesn’t for even a moment slow down or alleviate the austerity. Their role is to provide left cover for social democratic parties and trade union bureaucrats. In the way of these things money is counted two or three times. Most of these funds were already in the EU budget, but not used. The European Investment Bank will be able to raise more debt to fund infrastructure projects, but this is not going to happen overnight and will be subject to all kinds of typical banking conditions. In any case, when money does emerge it will be part of the privatisation agenda and will just be another way of handing public money to private firms. In the meantime, Greece’s economy is contracting at a 9% rate, Spain’s at 4% and Italy’s at nearly 3%. Unemployment is now near 20%, with youth unemployment close to 50% in all three countries. The depression in Europe is intensifying. |