Is Europe's Left Ready to Govern?

These days, the eyes of left-leaning people across the world are fixed on François Hollande, who has a good chance of defeating France's unpopular president Nicolas Sarkozy . Hollande's campaign commands so much attention because should he claim victory, it would be a major coup for social democracy, providing desperately needed momentum across Europe after a staggering 19 European elections lost to Conservative and centre-right opponents since the outbreak of the global crisis. The political message would be this: tough-minded opposition to austerity works; financial capitalism is the new enemy; a sharpened leftwing profile is popular again. It would promise the end of an era where left and right politics were apparently indistinguishable.