Liberalward

While they may not be able to credibly threaten to defect to centre-right parties as retribution for their party's 'treachery,' this rightward (or liberalward) shift of Social Democratic parties seems to be precipitating the exodus of traditional left-wing voters to the xenophobic parties of the far right, such as Franc's National FGront (Front National, FN) or Germany's National Democratic Party (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, NPD) or to far-left splinter parties, such as Germany's Labout and Social Justice — The Electoral Alternative (Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit — Die Wahlalternative, WASF) and the Left Party (die Linke), which promise to uphold the social justice values that centre-left parties have 'abandoned.'

The age rolloff isn't surprising, since we saw in chapter 15 that in the 20th century every birth cohort has been more tolerant and liberal than the one that came before (at the same time that all the cohorts have drifted liberalward).

All told, the 1990s saw Mexicans at their most liberal, while the 2000s have seen them much less so, save an ephemeral move liberalward as the millennium's first decade closed.