>Britain, France, Germany, Italy moving to the right. Should be a fun fall in the USA.

for the next election you are probably right: the social democrat party leader over here made the mistake of speaking up for a left/left coalition at the state level of a former western state, which dropped their ratings quite a bit. Caused quite an internal turmoil as well.

But if you look at the former eastern germany, you see such coalitons already in place. We have here now the same slow process italian communinsts had in the second half of last century. Seems like the communists will get some seats in most elections - and always choosing the "great coalition" for long periods will erode the voter turnout for the ruling parties and heighten the percentage of the opposition more to the left.

While you certainly identified the current movement, I have no idea how clearly you view the addition of the former east german population - perhaps as an outsider you have a more detatched view, but the percentage level of voters going to the party having A LOT in common with the former SED is probably especially surprizing for americans, even to somebody trained not to give too much weight to the currently en vogue/official topics.

The pendulum will swing back (and I fully realize you did not say otherwise<g>)

regards

thomas