Only Disappointment

Europe, looking so calm, prosperous, Center-Left, and until recently united, has suddenly begun to surprise us. In particular, by the fact that general elections in Austria have ended, for the first time since World War II, with second place taken by a party whose ideology and program, to put it mildly, do not exactly fit in with the long-established and generally-recognized democratic norms.

The situation in Austria could be a matter of concern per se but it has in fact come up against a background common for Western Europe: the ideas of Center-Left politics, as implemented first of all by Gerhard Schroeder and Tony Blair, are slowly but steadily losing electoral support. The issue is hardly the ideas. Ordinary people are simply disappointed by the way they are put into practice. The French man in the street is disappointed that, from the next year on, he will have not only to work less but also to earn less. His British counterpart is disappointed with battles over his beef. The average German never saw the tax cuts he had been promised. And so on. It is the overall feeling of disappointment that brought radicals to the Austrian Parliament. And even general vectors may begin to change a little in the immediate future. No one in the West knows in what directions and how things will change, while governmental analysts proved unprepared both for the situation concerning the Austrian elections and for the fact that, Britain, for example, is becoming more and more engulfed by away-from-Europe slogans under which the Conservatives are getting ready to win.

Poland's ambassador in Ukraine Jerzy Bahr must have been right when he said in The Day 's editorial office that modern Western society is now developing in not the best way.

The point is that the West is making mistakes, which is natural, in order that we might learn from them. In particular, they have understood that Turkey should not have been ignored for so long, and that former dictator Pinochet (whose government model was recently touted in this country as a showpiece) should not be allowed to escape prosecution.

Obviously, conclusions, somewhat different from those during the bombings, will be made, albeit much belatedly, from the Yugoslav tragedy: they have begun at last to say that Yugoslav cities will simply not survive this winter without foreign fuel supplies.

The West still seems to be able to handle the problems of its development on its own.

The trouble is perhaps in something else: all non-Western Europe, especially Ukraine, seems to be located on a different planet. The world has already become accustomed to our poverty and corruption, to the fact that it is impossible to do business here, that our authorities cannot even hold a normal election (the starting point of democracy). This is why they will not heed what we say, no matter how correct the words we use. They only look around. But it seemed to me up to now, for some reason, that my country is not only located in Europe but also has something to share with others (besides crime, corruption, and poverty). I do not at all want to be disappointed in this.