In France, new Socialist president-elect Francois Hollande said his victory marked “a new departure for Europe and hope for the world” because it showed “austerity can no longer be the only option”.

Meanwhile in Greece, where over 60 per cent of voters support anti-austerity parties, parties who reject the extreme belt-tightening that comes with international bail-outs were the big winners in parliamentary elections on Sunday.

Hannes Swoboda, leader of European Socialists and Democrats, said yesterday: “This radical austerity policy has pushed Europe into recession and brought about the explosion in unemployment. It has led to the votes for extremists in Greece and the upsurge in the National Front in France.” “The process of stabilisation must be based on a growth pact to stimulate investment and job creation”.

Even in Germany, the state of Schleswig-Holstein ousted a centre-Right government made up of the same parties as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s federal coalition, which preaches austerity.

Gaining ground on Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats, the Social Democratic Party yesterday joined the Hollande growth bandwagon, with its president, Sigmar Gabriel, saying the Frenchman’s victory “shows there is another solution than a politics uniquely based on austerity in Europe”.

In Italy, which is holding local elections, the centre-left PD, one of two parties which the Prime Minister Mario Monti depends upon for his majority, urged him to delay parliamentary approval of the EU fiscal compact and slow the process towards deficit reduction.

An anti-austerity movement is also gaining ground in Ireland, which on Monday said it would not defer a referendum on the EU fiscal pact.

Eamon Gilmore, the deputy prime minister, said Mr Hollande’s victory showed there was a new emphasis on growth in Europe, but warned that postponing the May 31 plebiscite would put off investors.

Paul Murphy, MEP for the Socialist Party and United Left Alliance, urged Ireland to block the treaty. “With a No vote, people in Ireland can add to the momentum against this attempt to write austerity into law,” he said.

[Even the left has a desire to have it’s cake and eat it too.

By that I mean they want to keep the corrupt capitalistic system but under some control. The last 40 years or so should be proof enough that simply does not work. It’s like keeping a dog that bites you in a cage in hopes that one day it will no longer bite you.

That will only happen after it’s dead.]