Ordinary people will only start voting for social democrats once more if they ditch the policies that are making their lives a misery.

Social-democratic parties were the main losers of the 2009 European elections. Green parties may have done well in their traditional strongholds (France, Germany, Sweden, Luxembourg), but their scores remain marginal elsewhere. And almost everywhere in Europe, conservative forces are in decline (however the far right increased its votes in a number of countries, notably in the UK). The main lesson of this election is that social-democratic parties were severely rejected where they are traditionally strong (France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain). One can note also that the slump in votes of social-democratic forces benefited the radical left in several countries (France, Germany, Portugal and to some extent Greece). Social democracy – whether in office or in opposition – appears deeply distrusted across Europe. However, it may not be a spent force yet, as no other forces are currently able to directly challenge their hegemonic position on the left.

Some on the left have wondered why the formations of the Party of European Socialists (PES) did not fare better in the context of the crisis of financial capitalism. The answer is quite simple: because they were seen by the electorates not as a solution to the problem but as the cause of the problem. Whether at home or in the European Union (EU), social-democratic parties, alongside right-wing forces, have helped to consolidate the ‘neoliberal consensus’ – which is directly responsible for the current economic meltdown. Before floating the idea of a Tobin Tax on financial transactions, Gordon Brown had spent the previous twelve years as a relentless advocate of unregulated markets, as an indefatigable supporter of City bankers (and their astronomical bonuses) and as a persistent partisan of Private Finance Initiative projects.

Since the 1980s, social democrats have blindly promoted free markets. They forgot that the most economically successful and fairest societies have been those where the state has kept a strong regulating role, and where public services have been consistently funded and kept in public hands. With Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, uncritical support of globalisation became the new mantra. Between 1997 and 2002, Lionel Jospin privatised more public utilities than any right-wing government during the same period. New Labour believers treated public service workers and trade unions with disdain. As a result, large sections of social democracy have done very little, if not nothing at all, to improve the lives of the millions of unemployed and poor people. In reality, the gap between rich and poor has significantly increased while social democrats have been in government. And the middle classes, who cannot any longer rely on effective and cheap public services, are also increasingly struggling. Peter Mandelson once famously said that he was ‘relaxed about people getting filthy rich’. His wish has come true. Today, Britain is still the Little America that Margaret Thatcher successfully established in the 1980s. It is a country where economic and cultural inequalities remain shockingly entrenched, where public services continue to be sparse and mediocre, where electoral turn outs are ridiculously low and where economic competition and consumerism are the cardinal values.

Social democracy has also failed to propose a progressive future for Europe. Every five years the same hollow social-democratic chants ring out: ‘Social Europe! Social Europe!’ What has the PES done for ‘Social Europe’? Next to nothing. Whether as heads of governments (notably in the years 1997-2002, when 12 out 15 member states were run by social-democratic governments), in the Commission, or in the European Parliament, social democrats have worked alongside reactionary forces to promote ‘unfettered markets’ (according to the words in the Constitutional Treaty). Instead of developing concrete steps to promote solidarity and employment, they have voted in favour of policies that have fostered competition between member states. This in turn has created an incentive for some countries to practise social dumping. It has made the EU a place of high unemployment, low wages and dismantled public services. Yet one year into the economic crisis some social democrats are stubbornly sticking to their much discredited policies. In spring 2009 Christine Lagarde, the right-wing French Minister of Finance, called for a relaxation of the Stability Pact in order to address the current crisis. But Joaquin Almunia (PSOE and Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs), as well as Peer Steinbrück (SPD and then German Minister of Finance), strongly opposed the French proposal. During the European election campaign, Brown, Zapatero and Socrates called for the re-election of the ultraliberal José Manuel Barroso as President of the Commission. Should we be so surprised that voters on the left deserted social-democratic parties last May?

Although they do not spell it out, the document written by John Cruddas and Andrea Nahles suggests a clean break with the fifteen years of ‘neoliberal social democracy’ (in their soft or hard versions), and with the over-blown verbiage of the Third Way and Neue Mitte. They want to position the values of solidarity and social justice at the heart of a new social-democratic project; they talk about the virtues of publicly funded and run public services, and of an economy at the service of the working people and not of a few business people. There are nonetheless important lacunae. The text lacks a clear action plan. How to appeal again to the million of working people who no longer vote for social-democratic parties? What alliances should be made? With the right? – as in Germany, Italy and possibly soon in France. Or with the left? If the suggestion is an alliance with the right, how then would social democracy expect to break with the policies that it has been implementing over the past twelve years? If it is with the left (as in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Belgium), what would be the conditions for such a partnership? What would constitute a real ‘progressive’ stand on Europe and how would it be achieved? How could the PES be transformed into a democratic and progressive organisation? Capitalism is proving itself, yet again, to be a disaster for human kind and for the environment. Doesn’t this new crisis provide social democrats with a golden opportunity to drop altogether their neoliberal frame of thought and action?

For its own sake, social democracy needs to urgently ditch the insane idea that one can promote the ideals of social justice while using the economic dogmas of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. If social democrats do not act decisively, the challenge from the new left in Europe will become greater. Social democracy might then really become a spent force, as working people turn to other parties to protect them from our flawed capitalist systems.