Euro socialists unable to gain traction

HANOVER, Germany, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- European socialists haven't been able to exploit recession angst even though voters are angry with capitalism's excesses, political analysts say.

Polls indicate voters are upset by unemployment and the free rein of unregulated markets, yet pro-labor parties in Germany, France, Italy and Britain have been unable to make political inroads, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

In Germany, the pro-labor Social Democrats are poised for their worst showing in decades as the Sept. 27 general election approaches, while French leftists are so disorganized they are posing little threat to President Nicolas Sarkozy, the newspaper said. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has survived a series of personal scandals partly because of the weakness of the country's socialists, while Britain's Labor Party is seen as likely to lose its hold on Whitehall at the next elections, analysts told the Post.

Despite the bitter recession, Germans have little faith that socialists could make improvements, Manfred Guellner, the chief pollster for Forsa, a leading German survey firm, told the newspaper.

"The main problem is that people think the Social Democrats have no economic competence," he said. "They have this impression that they cannot rule, cannot govern."