Political upheaval

With Germany’s Oscar Lafontaine, head of Die Linke, deciding to leave politics, media this week have focused on the state of the political left both in Germany and Europe. We also look at comment on how US health-care reform could be affected by the victory of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts. This gives the Republicans enough seats in the US Senate to successfully challenge the reform.

Defeat and weakness

The decline of Germany’s SPD party is part of a wider European failure of the centre-left, writes The Guardian.

[Oscar Lafontaine’s] retirement may make it easier for Germany's centre-left to rebuild and co-operate. ... But there is no disguising the continuing weakness and gradual decline of the German centre-left as a potential party of federal government. Failure to adapt to globalisation has produced weakness. Weakness has caused splits and the splits are reflected in further weakness. These current travails of the German centre-left are part of a wider European pattern of division and defeat. …

Step left

Oscar Lafontaine’s main support came from former East German voters. If the SPD wants to get back into power, it needs to find a way to reach these voters too, writes the Financial Times.

… Die Linke’s best-known politicians seem to come from an alien political culture. Some have murky communist pasts. Centrist voters’ suspicions will not be allayed by a 2009 report by the federal government on threats to the constitution listing Die Linke as having “extremist aspirations”. So the SPD is not on the way out. But it will not be on its way into government without finding a way to appeal to left-wing voters in the former East Germany. ...

Health problems

It would be a terrible mistake for Democrats to abandon comprehensive health-care reform just because voters in the Massachusetts Senate race last week decided that they liked the Republican, Scott Brown, more than the Democrat, Martha Coakley, writes The New York Times.

Congress is achingly close to passing legislation that would cover most uninsured Americans and provide much more security for all Americans — guaranteeing that if they lose their jobs they will be able to buy affordable policies and can’t be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. If the Democrats quit now, so close to the goal line, the opportunity for large-scale reform could be lost for years. ...