Observer
May 20, 2012
They are arguing for a new political settlement across Europe and for the first time their views are getting a hearing. But for the new insurgents challenging a political consensus that has dominated Europe for 30 years, style is as important as substance, and personal demeanour is almost as vital as the fine detail of opposition to the policies of debt reduction. Welcome to Generation Normal.
The leaders of Europe's new anti-austerity movement are accessible and generally insist – like France's new president François Hollande – on a certain everyday mundanity.
In Greece, Alexis Tsipras, the 37-year-old leader of the leftwing coalition party Syriza – who rejects the EU austerity programme as "null and void" – rides a motorbike around Athens. In France, Hollande, despite a property portfolio that suggests a certain financial comfort zone, has insisted on how removed he is from the era of President "Bling-Bling" Nicolas Sarkozy. In the era of "we're all in this together", Hollande, unlike some, has put his money where his mouth is, ordering all his ministers, himself included, to take a 30% pay cut.
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