The Economist says that, after decades of dominance left-wing parties are in serious trouble all over Europe.

If you have ever worried that Europe may fall into an abyss of bureaucratic socialism, this may seem like straightforward good news. But I’m not so sure about that. The article points out that the European right (most notably in Britain and France) has, arguably, regained political viability by simply stealing the “themes” of the left.

True, European conservatives are still fairly keen on free markets (and Britain’s Tories are even toying with a little social conservatism), but it seems that their resurgence happened only because they cast off the load of distinctive principles.