It is a sign of the times. People across Western Europe, still reeling from the economic crisis and with no faith that 2014 will bring much cheer, have profited from the Christmas break to surf the net in an attempt to sell off their unwanted Christmas and New Year presents.
“We have never seen such post-Christmas activity on e-bay and other Internet buy and sell sites. It seems everyone is in a hurry to win back some of the cash they had to fork out for presents this year,” Jean-Claude Dupuis, who works for a French start-up, told The Hindu . The pessimism in Europe is palpable and year-end festivities have been muted.
European leaders have tried to reassure their people saying that economies are recovering and an end to the crisis is at hand. But it’s been a long hard grind since the sub-prime crisis hit in 2008 and after five years of fear, anxiety and austerity, the mood is ugly and decidedly downbeat. Although the debt burden on southern European economies has lightened somewhat and growth indicators have turned from red to orange, there is no sign that massive unemployment is in any way shrinking. It’s been growth in joblessness which has hit young people hardest. In Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy, over 40 per cent of the young are unemployed.
With European Parliament elections scheduled for May, 2014 will be a key year for the European Union. Already there are signs that the extreme right, with its undisguised anti-immigrant rhetoric, is likely to score. In France, the National Front is expected to win as much as 25 per cent of the vote. The same is predicted for Geert Wilders’ anti immigrant and anti-Islamic party in The Netherlands. The main aim of the extreme, whether from the left or right, is to deal a body blow to the established order.
The euro, and the misery the single currency is seen to have brought to many of Europe’s poorest populations, is a target of constant attack and the cause of tremendous discontent.
It is going to be a vote against the euro, and the EU’s institutions, against austerity and against immigration.
As the world moves into 2014, workers from Bulgaria and Romania have won the right to live in other EU nations without work restrictions and Latvia has become the 18th country to join the eurozone, but most European economies remain fragile and the mood morose. Although stocks rose in early trading on Thursday, car sales are down and European middle and working classes have settled into a pattern of low spending, keeping their countries under-stimulated. The picture is decidedly not rosy.
