“布莱尔主义”的复兴？
最近，意大利和法国不约而同地选择了年轻的改革派领导人担任总理，这是为什么？伦齐和瓦尔斯两位“布莱尔主义者”的上台会给欧洲带来什么？
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
miasma [mɪ'æzmə; maɪ-] 瘴气，毒气
social democracy 指中左翼运动
momentum [mə'mentəm] 势头，气势
salve [sælv] 油膏，安慰
deprecate ['deprɪkeɪt] 反对，抨击
toil [tɒɪl] 网
tartly ['ta:tli] 犀利的
The left is rebuffed by the poor as it bashes the rich （854 words）
By John Lloyd
The terrible results for the French and the Dutch centre-left parties in local elections last month cast a miasma over social democracy, even as the left has become more prominent in European governments than for many years.
The Socialists govern France; leftists are the biggest party in a governing coalition in Denmark and the junior partners in Dutch and German administrations. In Italy, the left Democratic party (PD) holds the prime minister's office.
Yet the continental left is in poor heart, the two big beasts uncertain of themselves. The Socialists are increasingly restive over François Hollande's leadership in France; for the German Social Democrats, still low in the polls after a smashing by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats last year, junior partnership is a small salve.
For momentum, look to the new prime ministers of the left in France and Italy. Relatively young – Manuel Valls is 51, Matteo Renzi is 39 – they are the most vigorous of their country's politicians and carry the largest political burdens. Mr Valls must arrest the slide in the Hollande presidency and the assault of the far-right National Front. Mr Renzi must give hope to a country with huge public debt, minimal growth and a fatalistic resignation to failure.
And both are Blairites, proud to say so. Mr Renzi told the daily Il Foglio last June: “What fascinates me is the idea of being able to do in the Democratic party what Blair did in 1994 [when he became leader] with New Labour.” Mr Valls wrote, in his 2010 book, Pouvoir, how much he had admired Mr Blair when he met him, with Lionel Jospin, then French prime minister, soon after he came to power in the UK in 1997.
Mr Blair returned both men's compliments, warmly wishing Mr Valls “congratulations and good luck” in a speech in Paris this month. He dined with Mr Renzi a few days later, when the latter visited London on his European grand tour. In a subsequent interview, Mr Blair said: “He impressed me with his very strong patriotic sense about Italy. He's no ordinary politician. In normal times, to take on as much as he is all together – the economy, labour issues, changes in Europe – would be very hard. I think he understands completely how big a challenge this is. But if he attempts to do it by small steps he's not likely to create the momentum he needs.”
Is this a Blairite International? Mr Blair says the circumstances in which New Labour governed were quite different from today's but maintains that “the basic progressive position – breaking through the ideological divides of the past – is still relevant”. As he did when prime minister, he deprecates “false choices” between austerity with reform and no jobs, “and jobs and growth with no reform”. He even seeks, at least rhetorically, to reconcile the distrustful Germans to the southern Europeans caught in austerity's toils. Those Germans, he says, “who have been hawkish for perfectly understandable reasons, would understand the need for flexibility more if reforms were more far reaching and would create strong policies in the longer term”.
Both Mr Valls and Mr Renzi have ideological divides to break through. The Democratic party elected Mr Renzi but does not love him: like Mr Blair, he was elected to win. Mr Valls, an enthusiast for the market and individual aspiration, governs a country whose president said before his election: “I hate the rich.” In the current issue of City Journal, liberal philosopher Pascal Bruckner writes that “the idea that the [French] nation's prosperity is not a pure government decision and that private actors can overturn the rules of the economic game unsettles our deepest convictions”. Progress, the Blairite group in the Labour party, tartly pointed out this week that, unlike Mr Blair's pledge to “govern as New Labour” while campaigning as New Labour, Mr Hollande campaigned as a leftist, only to execute – in the midst of a personal crisis – a U-turn to the centre, depleting trust.
But ideology may be a small worry. Blairism came to power on a rising economic tide: Mr Valls and Mr Renzi on ebbing ones, with powerful reactionary movements blaming the left for unstoppable immigration, leaping unemployment and mountainous public debt. The fate of Mr Hollande – rebuffed by the poor even as he sought to bash the rich – illuminates a harsh fact. Large sections of the working and lower- middle class see social change as more disturbing than gross inequality, or do not believe that the left can do anything about either.
Mr Valls and particularly Mr Renzi are seen, especially by their parties, as the last chance. This is in part because there are few competitors for such unforgiving jobs but also because the left has, reluctantly, taken leaders from their parties' right, after attempts to inject socialism into the present economic bloodstreams had failed. If what Mr Blair calls the radical centre cannot hold here, it is hard to see what future the democratic left might have: a rougher beast might grow again, to fight the far right for the hearts and minds of millions caught in stagnation and fear.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
1.How well are the left doing in major European countries?
A.They have just suffered heavy electoral defeats.
B.They are on the way of reviving.
C.Their roles are limited to junior partners in governments.
D.They lead or participate in many national governments.
答案(1)
2.Who are “the two big beasts uncertain of themselves”?(You are encouraged to look back in to the article.)
A.Denmark and Holland.
B.France and Italy.
C.Valls and Renzi.
D.Left parties of France and Germany.
答案(2)
3.What is correct about Tony Blair?
A.He initially campaigned as a leftist before taking a U-turn to the centre.
B.He successfuly reversed Britain's economic downturn.
C.He believes Renzi must take bold steps in reform.
D.He mentored French and Italian PM Valls and Renzi.
答案(3)
4.What is the writer's attitude towards European social democracy movement?
A.optimistic
B.pessimistic
C.indifferent
D.irresolute
答案(4)
* * *
(1)答案：D.They lead or participate in many national governments.
解释：文章上来就讲到左翼政党在荷兰和法国地方选举中大败，even as他们最近在欧洲的总体表现不错。
(2)答案：D.Left parties of France and Germany.
解释：这一信息出现在第三段。
(3)答案：C.He believes Renzi must take bold steps in reform.
解释：将原文布莱尔的话“But if he attempts to do it by small steps he's not likely to create the momentum he needs.”同意转换得来。A是指法国社会党；布莱尔上台时英国经济形势良好，与现在的法国意大利的形势不同。 D是错误的，两位年轻的总理倾心于“布莱尔主义”但并非经他亲手指导。本题的信息分散在文章的中后几段中，需要整体把握（布莱尔与两位年轻总理的）重要的异同。
(4)答案：B.pessimistic
解释：从文章标题即可看出作者的“唱空”基调，而最后一段只分析了“如果他们做不好，结果会如何糟糕”，而未讲“如果做得好会怎样”，因此可以确定是对其前途感到悲观的。
