Liberals Oppose Change

...the chief executive of one of the largest international companies based in France described what he viewed as the best chance for needed economic reform that would open up European economies by making it much easier to hire and fire workers.

It was, he said, something that politicians from all parties knew was necessary, but that was unlikely to be popular with voters. The answer, he said, was for parties in the major Continental economies to accept the unpopularity that would come from economic change, so that each government would expect to be replaced at the next election by a government that would then offend voters by adopting more such legislation, and in turn be replaced.

The best chance for that, he said privately, was in Germany. He saw France as far less likely to have it work, in part because even the supposedly conservative parties were becoming more and more opposed to change.

(Emphasis mine.) Got that? "even the supposedly conservative parties were becoming more and more opposed to change". So typically, "conservative" parties support change, while "liberal" parties oppose it. It's got to be true, the New York Times says so. Anyway, it goes on to say,

There is, however, little sign outside Germany...that the push for change still engages politicians....In these [other] countries, a class accustomed to security — those with traditional jobs ending in generous retirement plans — opposes any effort to change the system. Economists may warn that the very system is one reason that unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, has soared, and that pressures of globalization mean that Europe must eventually change to prevent its growth from faltering even further. But many voters seem to prefer delaying that as long as possible.