More fundamentally, New Labour's attempt to run an election campaign with no reference to European politics Italy Rethinking "R The Refounded Communist Party won a disappointing 4.3% of the voteless than half of those who supported the party in the 1996 parliamentary elections. Livio Maitan
At least 30% of the lost votes went to the pro-government PdCI, which split from 'Rifondazione' earlier this year. But most of the collapse in the PRC vote was the result of abstentionism. Although Rifondazione is still seen as the most radical party, and certainly less corrupt than the rest, many voters were not convinced that it was sufficiently different to justify participation in the election.
Although voters did not punish the party for ending its support for the centre-left government, they clearly perceive the party as less powerful now that it is in total opposition. The war in Kosovo also certainly backfired.
The contempt in which many potential voters were held by the government was graphically demonstrated by Labour's last election broadcast. The only message was Blair is wonderful, so vote for him!'
In Scotland and Wales, nationalists to the left of Labour did well. The Welsh Party Plaid Cymru won two seats (they only expected to win one). The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) polled 27.2%, not far behind Labour and the Conservatives, who both scored 28.7%.
The best far left result goes to the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), which won 4.02% of Scottish votes, and 11% of votes in Glasgow, the largest Scottish city. The party has renewed its call for socialist unity-particularly with Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, which attracted 1.03% of Scottish votes. The SSP has invited Scargill's supporters to join-individually, or as an organised tendency.
Combining these two scores, the Scottish far left did almost as well as the LO-LCR list in France (5.2%). The strong vote will give more credibility to Tommy Sheridan, the SSP representative in the Scottish Parliament.
The English far left was much less successful in articulating the growing disillusionment with New Labour. Dissident Labour MEP Christine Oddy attracted 36,849 votes (4.34%) in the West Midlands. A more autocratic and eclectic campaign by ex-Labour MEP ifondazione" reinforced voter passivity. The PRC played a leading role in organising Europe's largest peace demonstrations outside Greece. But these only involved tens of thousands of people.
But the main cause of passivity is the seemingly inexorable advance of the Maastricht-guided European capitalist integration project. The new socioeconomic and institutional framework is increasingly unfavourable for the working class and other popular strata. So far, the result has been a tendency towards passivity.
Party leader Fausto Bertinotti is now calling for a profound reformation of the party-redefining socialism, and elaborating an alternative model for society that is relevant for the new generations. A discussion that some of us have been pushing for for a long time... * leishanil ordi base. aodmon
Scottish control over North Sea oil could be used to finance the improved health, education, infrastructure and social policies that most Scots want.
Ken Coates won only 2.41% of East Midlands votes. The Socialist Alliances and Socialist Labour Party failed to attract significant electoral support.