Britain owes everything to the woman who saved it from socialism, says Rainer Zitelmann

Margaret Thatcher would have been 100 years old today. She served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for nearly 12 years, making her the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century. No other political leader has ever implemented tax cuts, deregulation, and privatisation to reform a developed welfare state as radically as she did. Today, with many European countries facing similar challenges, the question arises: What conditions allowed Thatcher to implement such far-reaching reforms?

To lay the foundations for significant market economy reforms, three key conditions must be met: Firstly, the situation must have become dire for large sections of the population. Secondly, the intellectual groundwork must already have been laid – the right ideas must have been disseminated by opinion leaders over a period of many years. And only then – thirdly – does a charismatic politician have a chance. This was the case in Argentina before Javier Milei was elected and it was the same in the UK during Thatcher’s rise to power.

The socialist experiment

Before Thatcher took office, an experiment at “democratic socialism” had nearly driven the country to the edge of the abyss. Inflation had soared to 27 per cent, the tax rate for the highest earners had reached 83 per cent, and those with significant capital incomes were........

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