European social democratic and Christian democratic parties in Europe have shaped the way we live today in the decades after World War II. The welfare state, the rights of women, free education and civil liberties were the hallmarks of social democratic governments that ruled countries like the UK, Spain, France and Germany for decades. The Christian Democrats built on these achievements and were stronger in countries like Italy.
The ideological differences between these mainstream parties have all but vanished today. Their challenge today is to remain relevant in the eyes of an increasingly frustrated electorate that feels that traditional parties are more interested in holding on to power than to the principles of fairness and social solidarity.
The past several months have seen genuine traditional social democrats who felt more at ease supporting secular centre left parties suffering a complete and painful disillusionment with the behaviour of their leaders. Let us see why this has happened.
In the UK, the Labour Party elected a non-electable leader who seems to live in a 1960s time warp when the cold war raged in Europe. He surrounded himself with dyed-in-the-wool left wing supporters and manipulated the electoral process to ensure that he survived the challenge of more moderate potential labour leaders.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, being the shrewd politician that she is, appeals to ordinary people who usually support Labour to consider her as their champion in these difficult times. No wonder many independent political commentators are giving little chance of Jeremy Corbyn being elected as prime minister in less than four years’ time.
The socialist party in Spain was the voice of moderation and change for decades. It won voters from the centre as well as the left and introduced the welfare state in Spain. It won four straight elections in the 1980s and 1990s and another two this century. But today it is in disarray.
Traditional parties will not disappear suddenly. They will become increasingly irrelevant in the eyes of the electorate
Despite the corruption that plagued the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy in Spain in the last few years and two inconclusive elections, Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez insisted on putting his own interests first and failed to agree with either the conservatives or the left wing party Podemos to form a coalition. He must have thought that he had a better chance of becoming prime minister if he played the role of king maker and playing hard to get. His colleagues seemed to have had enough of this nonsense and kicked him out.
In Italy, Matteo Renzo has introduced some major reforms to put his country back on the path of economic growth. But in the process he alienated some of his own party grandees. He has now lost a referendum which will probably mean an early election with a likely unsettling result as no political party has enough electoral support to give Italy the stable government it needs.
The infighting between the grandees of the Partito Democratico is blatantly pathetic. It is alleged that Massimo D’Alema, a former partly leader, was deeply offended when he was not offered the post of EU foreign minister that went to the more amiable Federica Mogherini.
Young Renzi’s big mistake, like that of other socialist leaders, is that he threw anyone that was considered as rather old on the scrap heap of politics. He has indeed earned the title of il rottamatore that he so badly stuck to his forehead before he became leader. Except that he may soon find that he has scrapped his own social democratic party.
Social democracy is indeed at a critically important crossroad. It either continues to forget its principles and works for the benefit of a small cabal of party apparatchiks, whose only interest is to eventually retire from politics much richer than when they entered, or goes back to its roots. The roots of social democratic parties are not all that different from those of Christian democrats. They both aim for the middle ground. But today they both suffer from the same weaknesses – lack of leadership qualities where social principles are sacrificed for the power wielded by the few.
Unfortunately, for most Europeans, this is bad news since the new fringe parties of the left and the right are becoming mainstream and yet have little to offer in the form of political substance. The traditional parties will not disappear suddenly. They will become increasingly irrelevant in the eyes of the electorate as happened to the Labour Party in Israel.
johncassarwhite@yahoo.com