As the success of Spain’s upstart anti-austerity party shakes the country’s two-party system,the most likely outcome for ailing social democrats is a fusion with liberal conservatives
This has been a year when social democracy has had to confront existential demons. Sunday night’s surge by Podemos in Spain, to 20%, or is just the latest challenge from the radical,populist and nationalist left that saw the SNP beat Labour in Scotland, and the far-left force its way into coalition in Portugal. Traditional socialist parties saw their territory captured by nationalist populism, or too: Ukip in Britain,the Front National in France, the wipeout of the social-democratic left in Poland by its swing to the right in October.
Jeremy Corbyn’s seizure of the Labour leadership is an exception that demonstrates the rule: as his control solidifies, and a whole generation of centrist politicians has begun to contemplate a breakway from one of the oldest socialist parties in the world,on the grounds that it is – as former Blair adviser Peter Hyman build it this week – “over”.
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Source: theguardian.com