Political views are relative - the EU elections

From the Financial Times coverage of the European Parliamentary elections (Resounding victory for Europe's centre-right):

Europe's centre-right parties on Monday celebrated a resounding election victory that underlined the resilience of the European model of welfare state capitalism in the face of the worst recession since the 1930s.

Interesting. Isn't that European model of the welfare state what conservatives in the US point to when they want to highlight the horrors of "socialism"?

As the story goes on to note:

One reason is that centre-right leaders, alert to the risk of being portrayed as defenders of a heartless or irresponsible capitalist system, have sought to protect citizens against the worst effects of the recession by preserving jobs where possible and letting the welfare state take care of those in need.
Unemployment benefits, access to medical care and other forms of social expenditure, which come into effect automatically during a recession, form a large part of the €400bn fiscal stimulus that EU policymakers claim to have been implementing over the past six months.

Right wing politicians spending roughly $550 billion and "letting the welfare state take care of those in need"? I guess it all depends on which side of the pond you are on.

Of course, there is a debate as to how much to actually read into this election. During my recent trip to Europe, there didn't seem to be a great voter interest. In fact, voter turnout was at a record low.

The low turnout was a boon to what might be called by some "fringe" parties. One of those is the Swedish Pirate Party which won one seat (see the IAM Blog). The Pirate Party is dedicated to eliminating patents and fundamentally changing copyright. While one seat does not give it much political clout, it does give them a platform and a voice -- which should make for some interesting debates on IP policy in the future.