91Èȱ¬

In , the headquarters of Germany's Left Party, a new poster on the office wall shows Karl Marx tipping his top hat and saying "Good day, I am here again". Actually he is saying "Gruess Gott!" - the greeting in Bavaria, the richest, most conservative and, some would say, smuggest part of Germany. But is he back, and should the rich and conservative be worried?

Socialists the world over hope the newly poor and unemployed will turn to their philosophy during what we can with a straight face call a "crisis of capitalism". The Euro elections in June and Germany's general election in the autumn will be a test at the ballot box.

Helmut Scholz is a leading member of the party and a candidate for the European Parliament and he tells me: "Of course I see the European Union is at a crossroads and we have to choose either to continue the neo-liberal policies, and increasing the spiral of deficits in economic and social policy, or look forward into the future with a social and environmental reconstruction of the economy."

I am interviewing him for a piece on the this morning about the pressures the crisis puts on the EU itself. He wants what he calls economic government across the EU as an answer to the calls for protectionism:

"I can understand people in danger of losing their jobs reacting by blaming even weaker people, but the solution can't be to reduce things to the level of the nation state when we are so intertwined. Our party is demanding a European-wide minimum wage which gives a certain security to all people."

It is perhaps odd that when governments of all political stripe are turning to state aid and the nationalisation of banks that the European left isn't enjoying more of a renaissance.

The German Left Party is part of a group in the European Parliament which goes by the snappy title of the . They argue the EU is seen as a far-off organisation that ignores people's hopes and problems. They too say the European project is at a crossroads: "either the EU continues its current capitalist policy, which is deepening its financial, security, food and energy crisis or it becomes an area of sustainable development and social justice".

Clearly as we approach these crossroads they urge a left turn. Are they right?

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?