Down but not out, Europe's left begins a comeback

"Partially as a result of Washington's rhetoric, public opinion is more negative about war as a means to deal with this problem. The public is overwhelmingly against war," says Karl Kaiser, head of research at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. "Most Europeans are convinced that in the new international era in which we live, one of risk and uncertainty, we must not discard the international principles that guided us throughout the cold war era."

Yet a victory for Schröder is far from certain. And it's still unlikely, say analysts, that Europe will see a return any time soon to the days when the great majority of its governments were ruled by socialist leaders. Right-of-center governments have come to power in countries as diverse as Italy, France, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. "We are not yet seeing signs of a shift in the party systems," says Ulrike Guerot, head of the European division of the German Council on Foreign Relations. "We're not seeing the return to the time when 14 of the 15 EU members were led by socialist governments."

Still, the nascent reawakening of the left could affect European policy, say experts. For example, Eastern European countries could more readily gain acceptance as new members of the EU. Mr. Haider had threatened to block EU expansion.

While Swedes and Germans appear to be responding to a desire for greater security, in Austria, Haider's troubles emerged when his Freedom Party was forced to make compromises in its program in order to deal with a fiscal challenge. Haider, who once referred to participants at a meeting of former SS officers as "respectable men," clashed with his party's leaders over their decision to postpone a tax cut to pay for repairing the damage from this summer's massive floods. The head of Haider's party and other members resigned, which brought down the government. Austria's conservative chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel of the Austrian People's Party, or ÖVP, called new elections for January 20.

The latest opinion polls published in the Austrian daily Der Standard show support for the Freedom Party has fallen to less than 10 percent from 27 percent at the last election. Mr. Schüssel and the Social Democrat opposition are neck and neck in the polls. "Anything is possible except that the FPO [Freedom Party] gain," Imma Palme of Austria's Ifes polling agency, told Der Standard.

In Sweden, the conservative opposition campaigned on a program of tax cuts and anti-immigration issues. But Swedish voters rallied behind Göran Persson, who promised to uphold the country's cradle-to-grave welfare system. Mr. Persson called the election a "victory for the welfare state" signaling the "collapse of the conservatives." He added that "hopefully our friends in Germany will repeat our success next week."

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