The Lisbon treaty opens up a new era for the EU, with new opportunities for social democrats.

November 2009 was the twentieth anniversary of an event that has exerted an historic influence over the image and integration of the ‘old continent’ – an event which was itself a product of major European and world political trends. The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the two decades that followed can be seen today as part of a massive and dramatic process of change and challenge.

The unification of Germany opened up the road to globalisation; and globalisation has led to a search for unconventional political techniques and models. For social democracy the period since the demolition of the Iron Curtain can be characterised as the beginning of its post-modern development. Social democrats could feel that they had won an impressive ideological triumph in the battle over socialism in the former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe: Marxist-Leninist socialism was discredited by history, and social democracy became the main expression of ‘left’ expectations. What subsequently happened in the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in that period is typical of the wider pattern in former Eastern European communist formations.

For years, the dispute over whether the BSP should be identified as a ‘social-democratic’ or ‘modern left socialist’ party was at the core of its ideological debates. But Bulgarian socialists then became full members of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International, and thus became part of the modern ‘left’ in European and world political space. However, why is social democracy now in retreat, twenty years after the end of the cold war? Why do we conclude that the advance of right-wing parties in Europe should be seen as a strategic project rather than simply the result of tactical defeats in elections?

One of the explanations is that social democracy has failed to manage the challenge of globalisation. No decent left project for the development of the European Union has emerged over the past twenty years. What’s more, social democrats have found themselves under pressure from the right as well as from the more extreme left, and this has led to the emergence of a ‘rightifying’ of social democracy – which subsequently began chalking up one defeat after another. On the basis of its current representation in the European parliament the social democratic trend is in a subordinate position.

Another reason for the shrinking of social democracy is the globalisation of Europe and the world, particularly in the face of the biggest world financial and economic crisis since 1929. Despite the scale and depth of the crisis, it appears that the contemporary left is incapable of proposing an alternative, on either a national or – even less so – European level. The initiative has been left entirely with the right, even though, paradoxically, many of their initiatives have had a distinct flavour of the classical left – in particular proposals for the restoration of the regulatory role of the state during an economic crisis.

Last but not least, a further reason for the negative image of European social democracy is its attitude towards the process of enlargement of the EU. The left have approached this concept from an anti-globalist point of view. It was partly because of this that the project for a European constitution failed: anti-globalist attitudes were dominant in the referendums in France and the Netherlands. Paradoxically, now that the Lisbon treaty has been ratified, in spite of the lack of a constitution there is an opportunity for the political and ideological rehabilitation of social democracy. After the fall of the Berlin wall, Europe was transformed through the process of unification into a global subject that provoked anti-globalist attitudes. But since the adoption of the Lisbon treaty the debate over the nature of the EU has gone to a different level. It is now a part of the civilisation debate. ‘Whose home is Europe?’ – is it ‘Christian’, as in the doctrine of the right, or multicultural and multi-religious, as in the concept of social democracy? From 1 January 2010 Spain will hold the presidency of the EU, and Zapatero’s socialist government has made dialogue over Turkey’s accession to the EU one of its priorities. This is a topic that the right strives to avoid, seeking any excuse not to discuss it. Left to the whims of fate, the project for Turkish accession to the EU could fall into oblivion.

The ENP and other European conservatives have no clear strategic answer not only on the question of the future of Turkey, but also on the other difficult and divisive problems within the EU – including the unification of Cyprus, European attitudes to the Western Balkans (and Kosovo in particular), and the argument between Greece and Macedonia over naming and identity. These are all issues on which there is a need for strong political leadership. This means that the right’s refusal to take responsibility for European crisis hotspots opens up an opportunity for European social democracy. Its rehabilitation could begin with a new ‘civilisation’ and political project for Europe, to be built upon the foundations of the Lisbon treaty. In this way – from the ruins of the Berlin wall and the events that followed – the left can search for ways towards its rebirth, via Lisbon.