Pablo Hiriart
Madrid.- The Socialists have run out of ideas and voters to be an alternative government. What we knew as European social democracy, an example of governments capable of transforming public income into welfare for citizens, is dying out. They have no answers to people’s concerns in a new era, where there is less of a “working class” due to automation.
Social democracy means nothing to young people, who no longer dream of utopias but have nightmares about their future without jobs or access to housing. They are a hindrance to the generation of a basic commodity: electricity. Lacking answers to insecurity and immigration, social democracy is losing voters who are turning to populist options on the far right.
Sweden, the “perfect country,” now has the highest rate of mafia-related homicides in Europe. Many of its leaders are examples of corruption and inconsistency between their ideological preaching and their real lives, the patrimonial use of public resources, and the placement of relatives and lovers on government payrolls. The discourse of the far right, simplistic and direct on immigration and insecurity, makes it attractive to less educated voters.
The tremendous debacle of Portugal’s historic Socialist Party in last Sunday’s elections illustrates the widespread collapse of a political current on the old continent. In the 2022 elections, the Portuguese Socialists won 41.68 percent of the vote, confirming them as the leading political force in the country. On Sunday, they won only about 23 percent and are fighting for third place with the far-right group Chega (Enough).
Germany’s Social Democrats, who were in power until a few weeks ago, fell to 16 percent in February’s elections, a distant third behind the fascist AfD party.
The Socialists governed France until just seven years ago, and today, that party has only six percent of the vote, well below the far right led by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, which has 34 percent.
The Democratic Party of Italy, heir to that country’s leftist tradition and with leading figures in its political history, now does not even reach 20 percent of the vote and is widely surpassed by a far-right group called “Brothers of Italy,” which governs the country.
The Belgian Social Democrats barely scratch eight percent of the vote, and in the Nordic countries, none of them exceeds the 20 percent threshold.
In Spain, the Socialists are in power, but not because they won the most votes in the elections. They govern because they made a deal in Congress with the Catalan separatist right in exchange for amnesty and impunity for the coup leaders headed by Carles Puigdemont. And with the international defenders of Nicolás Maduro: the Podemos party.
Each country offers different realities, but the constant is the social democratic debacle and the prevalence of the liberal right as an alternative to the nationalist far right with fascist exponents.
On Sunday, Romania voted between the ultra-nationalist, pro-Russia right, with leaders who admire both Nazism and communism, and a pro-European, liberal right-wing independent. Are 45 percent of Romanians who lost the election fascists? Of course not. They have their reasons, which stem from poverty and corruption. The winning candidate, who is independent, played the strong card with his anti-corruption rhetoric, his proposal for reconciliation to rebuild Romania, and his clear rejection of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as his commitment to keeping his country in the European Union.
The case of the rise of the German far right in February was different. The fascist AfD jumped to second place with the support of the population in the east, formerly communist Germany, seduced by anti-immigrant rhetoric, especially against those of Arab origin.
In France, England, and Austria, the rise of the nationalist far right has as a common factor the seductive power of extremist leaders’ anti-immigrant rhetoric. Such discourse only thrives when there is economic stagnation (Germany) or low growth.
If this is combined with the prolongation of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which means expensive gas, exorbitant defense spending, and economic and military support for the invaded country, the outlook is bleak for European democracies.
In this context, we can see that social democratic parties can only aspire to be a backup for liberal rights or serve as a silver bridge for far-right nationalist extremism to rise to power quickly.
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