Rebuilding the left after the European Parliament elections
Red Brick Wall - CC / Flickr
The European Parliament Election results on Sunday were not good for social democratic and labour parties across Europe, polling 3% less than at the elections in 2004. PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, posting at Labourlist, states rather blandly that “We need more PES, not less PES” so as to do better next time. I’m afraid it’s not that simple Poul – so here are a few more ideas.
First of all, social democratic parties at national and EU level lack coherent and decent quality leadership. Brown is monumentally weak and cares little about the EU, Aubry has not been able to assert herself in France, the Italian Partito Democratico is tearing itself apart, the SPD seems determined to simply turn the clock back, the left has no coherent leadership in Poland… only Zapatero has been able to arrest the decline, and he has seldom been seen on the international stage. Things are not much better at EU level – I have respect for Rasmussen, but he has been unable to assert himself. Leader of the Socialist Group Martin Schulz, famous in large part thanks to his Berlusconi incident, does not have the optimism, nuance or communications skills to lead effectively. In short things at the top must change.
Secondly, the left does not have an adequate discourse to appeal to voters. Stuck between the unionised labour wing of the past and potential socially responsible yet more individualised approach of today, the left is in danger of losing votes to the old left (to Die Linke in Germany for example) and to the Greens that polled well across the old Member States in the EP elections. Here the left must be continually and resolutely determined in developing EU-wide principles for flexicurity – not propping up outdated and polluting industries just because they employ lots of people. It is also important that the EU can develop cooperative means to approach labour market relations – Nordic-style collective agreements with collaborative rather than destructive trade unions are a much better model than central European rules-based systems. Just because the EU is a community of law does not mean EU-wide rules are necessarily the right answer.
Thirdly, the left needs to work out in what areas it wants the European Union to act. Regulation of the banking sector is all very well, but what are centre-left principles for CAP, consumer protection, trans-European networks, structural funds? Surely during an economic downturn a resolute effort to ensure Europe does the best it can for its poorest people and poorest regions should be a policy priority for the PES – a more redistributive EU budget. Poorer voters voted against the European Constitution and Treaty of Lisbon as eloquently argued by Kevin H. O’Rourke – the results of the EP elections seem to show these voters tended to stay at home rather than vote for the left. Focus of the budget should also be more on foreign aid and investments in green industries. Beyond that Europe’s education systems are clearly not adequate in the era of globalisation – the left should more strongly advocate giving the Bologna Process some teeth.
If you’ve reached the end of this post and are thinking: what planet is Jon living on to think that all of this is possible, then just think back a little to 1999 and The Third Way / die neue Mitte – an era of Blair, Schröder, even Jospin, when the left managed to have a positive and forward looking message in so many European countries. That’s the standard to which we should aspire by 2014.
[Cross-posted from jonworth.eu]
Hi Jon, thanks for the post but I disagree with you on quite a few points. In my book, Martin Schulz is a very good leader but the problem is that national parties do not allow European leadership to penetrate the national level. The genesis of PES activists – or should I say the failure to introduce proper PES membership – is one example for this. The idea of proper membership was shot down by the UK Labour Party at the party congress in Vienna. National parties do not give the European level enough space so it is very hard to develop leadership. But I agree that social democracy in general could do with a few more good and young leaders.
Flexicurity has all sorts of issues associated with it starting from downward social mobility to loss of productivity as a result of loss of expertise. This is not a system that would make proper macroeconomic steering redundant. What would you suggest all the bankers should become now?
Industry is not necessarily outdated and dirty. Much of it is also very knowledge intensive and should be adjusted to new circumstances rather than abandoned. The key is to make necessary adjustments at a pace people can cope with. This is not to say that one should slow down adjustment processes unnecessarily but prematurely abandoning large parts of the economy makes no sense either. Even the UK is talking up the role of industry again. But I completely agree that the left needs to present a clearer picture of what it wants the EU to do and what not.
I am afraid the Third Way was not a silver bullet but – in the way it was enacted – one source of the problems social democracy is currently facing. Blair and Schroeder had quite different ‘Third Ways’ associated with them and Jospin wasn’t really fond of it. I have 350 pages worth of thesis on this subject which I hopefully manage to turn into a book over the summer.
We’ll have to agree to disagree about Schulz – in my mind he’s hot headed, a nasty bully, and lacks policy and communications nuance.
On the issue of redundant bankers – look at the percentages. It’s not as if London and other banking centres are over-flowing with redundant bankers. Those in the economy with university degrees and business skills will for sure find further employment. There will always be a decent financial sector – perhaps not as large as before, but the sector will not die. The same cannot be said for some areas of industry and retail.
Also note on what I stated on the Third Way – I don’t agree with it! I cited that as reference to a time when the left was more optimistic and self confident than it is at the moment.
The Labour Party won overwelhmly in the European Parlamentary Elections. Various reasons can quoted, e.g. the party has a new young leader, the present economic climate, domestic issues.
However, I feel that we lack a coherent ideaology throughout EU to make an impact on the European people. Yes, we need a forward looking policies but based on what? Should we still care of the masses that are overburdened with taxes that will never filter through the same poeple again. Should we start looking at the workers as the consumers of our society who are being swindled by the so called ‘businesses’. Every problem has two faces interlinked to each other. Are the workers the same people that consume the products that were produced by other workers? Let us change our perspective from looking at the probelms of the workers to the problems of the consumers for they are the same people at the end of the economic loop.
And therefore the consumers have rights. Rights that are being trampled upon by those businesses that lobby in the EU parliament. These rights consist of the geniune food we eat, education for all, environment that enriches us, culture for all.
So I think before we start thinking of new leadership, let us think of new ideas that will benefit the people of Europe.
Congratulations! Your article alone has convinced me to unsubscribe from Social Europe.
If Social Europe is still willing to give credence to the «Third Way» and its apologists, who have done nothing but push Europe to the the Right, both politically, socially and economically in the past 15 years, and who have presided over the biggest increase in income inequality in Europe in modern times, then I cannot really trust them on anything «Social», can I?
Regards from the true Left.
@Hugo – I wonder whether you actually read the original post, and my subsequent comment? I am not an apologist for, or supporter of, The Third Way. I cited it only as reference to a time when the parties of the left were more electorally successful and self confident.
Perhaps rather that just reacting in a petulant manner where Third Way seems to be like a red rag to a bull you might actually like to put forward ways by which the left could be in power in as many European countries now as it was in the late 1990s.
The “expertise” of those bankers is the thing that crashed the economy.
There question isn’t whether there will be a decent sized banking sector but whether there should be a banking sector of the size we had in the last years.
I think that the crisis showed that the banking sector was too big.
It should be social democratic policy to reduce it’s size.
The size of the part of society that actually produces value should increase and the size of the finanical sector should decrease.
Then the economy isn’t the only topic that is of interest to voters. In Sweden the Pirate Party got 7% on a platform based on individual liberties.
Maybe the left could get a fair share of those votes if it would also protect civil liberties instead of destroying them out of fear of terrorists.
@ChristianK – I think the Piratpartiet is one of the most interesting developments from the EP elections. Would be handy for the left to learn from them for sure!