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A lot of political labels have a different, often opposite, meaning in Europe compared to the US. A liberal in Europe refers to classical liberalism. We also have many political parties, so a liberal here is not necessary a christian conservative. Politics is more nuanced.


Did you reply to the right comment? What do US political designations have to do with European and EU politics? In any case, "a lot of political labels" implies several, and I'm not sure there are more than one or two that fit this description.


GP had cast "conservative" and "liberal" as mutually exclusive descriptions of the political spectrum: parent clarified that in Europe, those 2 terms mean the same thing. Mostly.


Probably closer to 'libertarian' in US parlance (laissez-faire economics, small government).


>" a liberal here is not necessary a christian conservative" //

They're pretty much opposite sides of the political spectrum in UK. Where are they anything other than that?


Liberal economic policies means low taxes, so in Sweden they are a right wing party. Why would they be anything but right wing?

Basically the most liberal party is for low taxes, for diversity and for secularism. If you want high taxes then you aren't a liberal.


In Germany the liberal party is the FDP, who are seen as centric (so between left and right). The left wants your taxes for social programs, the right wants your taxes for security, the FDP just wants lower taxes (but achieved by reducing bureaucracy and overheads, not by running a deficit like the US's political right).


I disagree. Perhaps it meant so in the past, but nowadays most commentators in Europe use liberal and left-wing almost interchangeably.


Do they? Are you talking about UK? They don't do so in Sweden at least. UK is quite different from the rest of Europe on many points so they don't really count.




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