The Depression started under left wing government in most of the EU. The natural inclination for the people is to throw the bums out. Also keep in mind that the biggest busts in the EU were in states that had leftist administrations - the UK and Spain. (I don't know which party governed Ireland). But those were the countries that had the big house price bubble and the bust that followed. The rest of the EU doesn't want to pay to bail out the UK, Spain, and Ireland. Germany did NOT have a housing bubble. Neither did France.

And in the UK itself, the leftist party is unpopular because they have been in power too long, they presided over a bubble and its consequent bust, and they participated in all sorts of tawdry excesses during the bubble years. Their expense account scandal has a tremendous impact on public attitude toward UK politicians, particularly the ones in power.

Yah, if Labor types are going to embezzle money from the public to feed their lavish lifestyles, what do we need them for? Why couldn't then have followed the liberal script and had a heterosexual sex scandal? Leave the financial scams to the right wingers.

The main political parties in Ireland (Fianna Fail and Fine Gail) do not operate on a Left/Right axis. Instead they were formed by the splinter groups during the Civil War (Pro- and Anti-treaty). The distinction no longer makes much sense these days and the two parties opportunistically pick and choose policy depending on circumstances. FF is currently in power (although probably not for long), and hold power in a coalition with the Greens. Both parties were hit hard in the council and EU elections. FG is in opposition, along with the Labor party and they both did well.

How about the following: the countries that snuggled up the closest to the US, experienced the same housing bubble shenanigan as the US. If memory serves me right, both the UK and Spain were inital supporters of the Iraq war. Germany and France wasn't.

Alright, this theory has some holes, as both Poland and Italy also supported the US, and Poland is somewhat prospering and Italy seems to be doing okay.

However, there is some argument to be made, that the countries following the US the closest, ran into similar problems. Or, the ones with the traditionally strongest banking systems, i.e. Great Britain and Switzerland...

With all said and done, capitalism is a philosophy of the right and not the left. Thus it's somewhat silly to blame the consequences of capitalism on parties leaning to the left.