Centrist, anti-EU party?

[OSR stands with Israel]

What does "centrist" mean here?

Loving both big business and big government.

The last centrist President, Gerald Ford, was despised by big business, big labor, and big government, which will forever keep my opinion of such an esteemed gentleman high.

yet the establishment supported him in 1976.


Both Reagan in the primaries and Carter in the general were clearly the anti establishment candidate (even though by 1980 this was no longer true for either of them)

[IceAgeComing]

The new SDP is very eurosceptic, from their own website:
"Brexit was a victory for democracy and accountability over lobbyists and bureaucracy.
The Social Democratic Party has a very positive vision of Brexit and, for that vision to be realised, we must ensure that the powers returned to our elected representatives are used to benefit society as a whole, rather than merely elements of it. "

They also lost their last councillor a few years back to UKIP: and at this point I'm pretty sure they were just a label that random local councillors in Port Talbot used to get elected...

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

The Liberal Party in Britain, apparently.

Interesting. Who was more anti-EU, Gladstone or Rosebery?

Oh wait, I didn't know of another Liberal Party.

Not sure if you're just joking or not, but the UK Liberal Party was a splinter group from the old party who left in part because of the merger with the Social Democratic Party to form the Lib Dems but mostly because they opposed EU membership and the euro, while the Lib Dems support both (but keep quiet on the latter these days).

It has a small number of local government councillors scattered around the country, most concentrated in Liverpool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_(UK,_1989)

I actually totally forgot about their existence. Thanks.

[Kingpoleon]

What does "centrist" mean here?

Loving both big business and big government.

The last centrist President, Gerald Ford, was despised by big business, big labor, and big government, which will forever keep my opinion of such an esteemed gentleman high.

yet the establishment supported him in 1976.


Both Reagan in the primaries and Carter in the general were clearly the anti establishment candidate (even though by 1980 this was no longer true for either of them)

... Your nonsensical ramblings opposing the establishment make you sound like a Trump supporter.

[Kingpoleon]

What does "centrist" mean here?

Loving both big business and big government.

The last centrist President, Gerald Ford, was despised by big business, big labor, and big government, which will forever keep my opinion of such an esteemed gentleman high.

yet the establishment supported him in 1976.


Both Reagan in the primaries and Carter in the general were clearly the anti establishment candidate (even though by 1980 this was no longer true for either of them)

Seriously, please explain this. Neither big business nor big labor supported Gerald Ford. They remained largely neutral, although labor union members probably largely voted for Ford.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I know a certain Swedish poster who would sign up for that.

[Former President tack50]

It seems to me that all the centrist parties are pro-EU, and a lot of the far-left and far-right parties are anti-EU. Why isn't there a centrist, anti-EU party and if there was would it be successful?

Maybe 5 Stelle in Italy qualifies? I think they claim to be "not right or left" and are euroskeptic, so close enough.

[ApatheticAustrian]

5 stars are a radical anti-system party, combining far left and far right positions.

[TheSaint250]

*bump*

What parties are like this?

The only ones I can think are Centre Party (Norway) and Liberal Alliance (Denmark), the latter of which leans more to the right.

In addition, I read that FDP (Germany) has a "national-liberal" branch that is Eurosceptic. Is this true (could someone link an article if it is?)

[DavidB.]

LA are at most soft euroskeptics (and even that is debatable, I think), not anti-EU -- but indeed, Norwegian Center are a centrist anti-EU party.

[Pennsylvania Deplorable]

Well for one thing, a political party that opposes mass immigration, no matter how liberal it is on other issues, will always be called far-right. In order to be deemed "centrist" you have to go along with the core elements of the neoliberal establishment consensus, one of which is the EU.