European Social Democracy: Is Social Democracy Facing Extinction In Europe? - by Davide Vittori

The last French presidential election and the recent legislative elections confirmed a seemingly unstoppable declining trend in the electoral support of social democratic parties. For the second time in the last fifteen years, the official candidate of the French Socialist Party (PS) was excluded from the second round; in both cases, the “outsider” was represented by the candidate of the Front National (FN).

The legislative election confirmed this trend: the PS and its allies received only 9.5% of the vote. Before the French elections, the Labour Party (PvdA) in the Netherlands (5.7%) received a similarly cataclysmic result. This built on other high profile losses for social democratic parties in recent years, notably PASOK’s decline in Greece in 2012 (13.2%), which represented a turning point for the Greek political system. Between these results, other social democratic parties have suffered heavy losses, either as incumbents or as parties in opposition. 

For the complete report click here: Is Social Democracy Facing Extinction In Europe?

EU Politics - the Netherlands: Geert Wilders - the Dutch Donald Trump?

In March of this year, the Netherlands will be heading to the voting booth and at the moment a far-right anti-immigrant politician is leading in the polls. He is strongly against Islam holding sway in European society, and he's been nicknamed the 'Dutch Donald Trump.' Lauren Frayer traveled to the Netherlands to meet Geert Wilders and find out more. 

Read more: Inside Europe: Geert Wilders - the Dutch Donald Trump? | All media content | DW.COM |19.01.2017

EU politics: Europe’s populist parties aren’t done by a long shot - by Eric Reguly

If there were a single image that summed up the quick rise of Europe’s anti-establishment parties, is was the one of Alexis Tsipras and Pablo Iglesias together, on stage, at an anti-austerity rally in Athens just before the Jan. 25 Greek election. Wearing their trademark open-neck blue shirts – no neckties ever for them – their arms were outstretched, as if in celebration, as the crowd cheered them on.

Mr. Tsipras, the leader of the radical left Syriza party, would win that election; Mr. Iglesias, leader of Podemos (We Can), the Spanish equivalent to Syriza, would top the polls in Spain, much to the distress of the mainstream parties.

The image implied that the populist revolution had arrived in Europe, where the centre-right and centre-left parties that had ruled for decades were in full retreat as voters grew angry at the stalled recovery, the harsh austerity measures and the obscene unemployment levels.

But could January have been the peak of the populist movement? Shortly thereafter, Syriza was riven by infighting as its efforts to make a breakthrough with its bailout masters in Brussels and Berlin went nowhere. Podemos’s rise stalled as spring approached. In Britain, the UK Independence Party, whose goal is to yank Britain out of the European Union, won only one seat in the May 7 election; even UKIP’s leader, Nigel Farage, got shut out. Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement, Italy’s biggest opposition party, lost momentum. While the Euroskeptic Finns Party placed second in Finland’s election, their vote tally fell by two points.

Investors have applauded the apparently flattening popularity curve of the protest parties. Bond yields, with a little help from the European Central Bank’s ultra-easy monetary policy, have sunk throughout the euro zone. The rage against the middle-party machine seemed less shrill as the economy improved. The falling euro and oil prices, and the ECBs €1.1-trillion ($1.3-trillion) quantitative easing program, helped.

Not so fast. Rumors that the populist surge is over might be exaggerated, greatly so.

Read more: Europe’s populist parties aren’t done by a long shot - The Globe and Mail

EU Politics: EU summit may decide only on foreign policy chief - by Valentina Pop and Andrew Rettman

 Leaders meeting on Wednesday (16 July) are likely to pick only the new EU foreign policy chief, with a decision on the successor to Council head Herman Van Rompuy “possibly” delayed until autumn.

According to one EU source, "if a complete deal is feasible, we should go for it. Otherwise, it will be only the high representative."

A second source told this website that it is "certainly a possibility" that only the foreign affairs chief is picked.

Both the foreign policy head - Catherine Ashton - and the Council president - Herman Van Rompuy - have five months to go until their terms end.

But in the case of the foreign affairs job, the successor also has to undergo hearings in the European Parliament and to be voted together with the rest of the new EU commissioners in October.At the core of the delay is a disagreement in the Socialist leaders' camp.

France's Francois Hollande is reluctant to endorse Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt for the Van Rompuy job. Thorning-Schmidt is a centre-left politician, but close enough to the centre-right to be acceptable to the likes of Germany’s Angela Merkel or the UK’s David Cameron.

The political colour of one top job will determine the other, as the centre-right and the centre left are dividing the posts evenly.

Read more: EUobserver / EU summit may decide only on foreign policy chief