In Spain, the rightward shift of the Socialist Party (on economics) is probably a factor in the recent rise of left nationalist parties and the (for me) unexpected good showing of the United Left in the recent local elections.
As long as the UK and France have FPTP, I don't think there's hope for a party to the left of Labour or the PS. France, in particular, has enough established parties to the left of the PS that proportional representation would very quickly lead to at least two new parties of the left: a green left and a new hard left. In the UK I'm not so sure. Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
With the current French system, a party able to gather 15% of the votes in the legislative elections can act as major spoiler if not negociated with, or having its program applied (as Sarkozy did with Le Pen's).
Trotskyites+PCF+altermondialists+Green gets you way above that percentage. Of course, building a party that could attract all these voters is a major task. But then, unifying Neo-Pagans and über traditionalists on the far right mustn't have been much easier. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
