MODERN LEFT-WING EUROPEAN POLITICS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Flavia-Tania ŞTEFAN
University of Bucharest
Faculty of Philosophy
Tel.: 004- 0213181556 E-mail: flavia_stefan@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper is about the importance of modern left-wing European politics in the process of construction of European Union. In my paper, I have tried to discern the main ideological issues of the contemporary European left-wing, focusing on that which may currently be considered the essence of the offer of the left-wing political parties: the European societal model. Lately, there has been a real “right-wing fashion” throughout the European space, fashion manifested both in the intellectual circles, in those of the great entrepreneurs, in those of the middle class, and even among a large part of the working class. They all have right-wing sympathies; they all vote for the right-wing parties at the local, national, or European elections. In the recent electoral years, few EU countries have witnessed
victories of the left-wing, the right-wing succeeding in imposing itself paradoxically in times of economic crisis, that is just when the electorate was expected to vibrate to the leftist political promises! Against this background, the question arises whether the left-wing is experiencing a conjectural decline or whether precisely its fundamental values (political, economic, and moral) are going through a crisis, in a world increasingly individualistic.