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In relative terms, that is centre-right.

By your standards, the European Social Democrats are centre-right.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jul 31st, 2010 at 04:51:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, in the case of Berlusconi I have to wonder, relative to what?
I think most people would agree that anything involving camps, burning the houses of the "others" and suchlike would be extreme (right or even left sometimes maybe). And even probably something short of that would still be called extreme.

So what do you need to be at least "right", even if we go by relative terms? What do you have that would be significantly to the right of Berlusconi yet clearly not extreme?

To me it seems more like journalist laziness. And cowardice to actually make a meaningful statement.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Sat Jul 31st, 2010 at 05:09:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Relative to the median voter.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jul 31st, 2010 at 05:34:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, then, anyone in power would be, by definition, centre (except in FPTP systems of course). Not even centre-something, but full centre. Which would make the wording devoid of meaning.

Actually, Mussolini would then have to be called centre. The median voter was with him. Some threats probably ensured that it was so, of course.

Somehow, I rarely see Chavez described as a centre politician. Yet he is spot on where the median voter is, in his country.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Sat Jul 31st, 2010 at 04:34:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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