It seems that the lights will soon go out on Paris’s Rue de Solferino, at number 10. This is the headquarters of the recently ruling French Socialist Party.
The impressive Parisian building on the left bank of the Seine, home to the French socialists since the early 1980s, must be put up for sale as the party, after a heavy defeat in the recent French parliamentary elections, is facing both political and financial crises.
Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon received only 6.4 percent of the votes in the April elections, lacking support in a race where his main competitors were, on one side, the charismatic centrist Emmanuel Macron, the eventual winner, and on the other, the radical leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon.
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The traditional base of European social democracy, the working class, began to erode in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the change in the class structure of European societies and the collapse of the established party system also affected traditional right-wing parties, so social democratic parties still recorded some successes in the 1990s.
Now, even the German social democrats (SPD), led by former President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, are struggling to achieve a good result in the upcoming elections.
When Schulz took over the leadership of the party in January, the SPD saw a rise in support among German voters, but this was short-lived. As the elections approach, the SPD is sinking in the polls.
According to a public opinion poll released by Forsa on Tuesday, the SPD is receiving 23 percent of the votes, which is lower than the 25.5 percent recorded in the previous elections in 2013, and almost identical to the historically low result recorded in the 2009 elections.
Elsewhere in Europe, social democrats are facing disappointing results.
The Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), once one of the strongest parties in the country, won less than six percent of the votes in this year’s elections, while the more radical left Socialist Party has taken its place among Dutch voters.
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Greek socialists from PASOK, once the dominant party in the country, have seen their support fall to just over six percent after the country fell into a severe financial crisis. They too have lost voters to the more radical left, Syriza.
Only four other countries in Western Europe (Austria, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden) have governments led by social democratic or left-center parties, which have been powerful players on the political scene for decades, often dominant in the governments of many European democracies.
With solid support from the working class and close ties to trade unions, they established what is known as the European social model, with a market economy but also a strong welfare state.
The European left center is undoubtedly experiencing a “sharp decline trend,” assesses political science professor Patrick Diamond from Queen Mary University of London.
“But we still do not know the answer to the question of whether this is a cyclical trend or a permanent decline” in support, says Diamond, noting that support has previously returned after periods of decline.
“The strength of social democracy was in its ability to be the voice of change or the voice of the poor, the working class, the disenfranchised,” states Neil Warner, an activist of the Irish Labour Party and vice president of the Young European Socialists movement.
What has evidently changed, emphasizes Diamond, is the fact that these parties now receive much less support compared to the 30-40 percent they garnered in the post-war period.
For this, in his opinion, there are long-term and short-term reasons.
Social Democracy Has Ceased to Be the Voice of Change
The traditional base of European social democracy, the working class, began to erode in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the change in the class structure of European societies and the collapse of the established party system also affected traditional right-wing parties, so social democratic parties still recorded some successes in the 1990s.
“Therefore, I do not think we can conclude that these longer-term trends will inevitably exclude victories for social democrats,” says Diamond.
However, the short-term reasons have had a much stronger impact. “The global financial crisis, especially in countries where the left center was in power, such as Britain, undoubtedly caused serious consequences.”
Parties that were younger partners in coalitions, such as the PvdA in the Netherlands, also achieved weak results, notes Diamond.
Some social democrats believe that the weakening of social democracy occurs because it has lost its direction. “The strength of social democracy was in its ability to be the voice of change or the voice of the poor, the working class, the disenfranchised,” states Neil Warner, an activist of the Irish Labour Party and vice president of the Young European Socialists movement.
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“This was lost when social democracy became the voice of the system…If social democracy wants to have a future, it must regain its ability to be the voice of change and equality.”
In many social democratic parties, perhaps most notably in Britain under Tony Blair and in Germany under Gerhard Schröder, the turn of the century brought a closer alignment with market-friendly policies.
This worked at the time, but in Warner’s opinion, it is time to reassess this direction.
He points to the relative success achieved by the Portuguese Socialist Party, which, as the ruling party, rejected strict austerity measures after the crisis, and that of the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Professor Diamond is somewhat more skeptical. Left-leaning electoral programs can certainly gain electoral support, he says, “but the question is whether this can be successfully implemented after gaining power.”
