Europe’s Austerity Backlash Gathers Steam in Merkel Test

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Europe’s backlash against austerity gained momentum, in a challenge to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s budget-cutting prescriptions for resolving the debt crisis.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost the first round of his re-election bid and a revolt against extra spending cuts in the traditionally budget-conscious Netherlands propelled Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition toward an early breakup.

Together with anti-austerity rumblings in a campaign for elections in Greece, the shift in grass-roots sentiment at the heart of Europe generated fresh doubts about the German-driven strategy for getting to grips with the two-year-old crisis.

“We have organized the track of discipline, that’s very good and we have to continue on that, but we need desperately also to organize the second track, the track of growth, solidarity, investment,” former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, now a member of the European Parliament, said on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse.” ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-23/europe-s-austerity-backlash-gains-steam-in-challenge-to-merkel.html

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. You can only fool most of the people some of the time. Everyone that doesn't inhabit

the beautiful bubble of privilege knows they have been ripped off and that the thieves are getting away with it.

K&R

[girl gone mad]

2. It's past due.