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The vacant centre (part II)

… if one looks closely at the proposals offered by Syriza, one cannot help noticing that they were once part of the standard moderate social democratic agenda (in Sweden of the 1960s, the programme of the government was much more radical). It is a sad sign of our times that today you have to belong to a “radical” left to advocate these same measures – a sign of dark times but also a chance for the left to occupy the space which, decades ago, was that of moderate centre left. Slavoj Žižek on Greece: This is a chance for Europe to awaken

Strange times, too – only recently, Labour moved so far to the right the UK’s centre party became its most radical.

Žižek is ambivalent about this opportunity, but it is an opportunity nonetheless. If Labour or the Lib Dems won’t do it…