Social democrats moved to the centre and got caught in the middle

Social democracy compromised across Europe, but the centre has swallowed it, writes Gerard Howlin.

LAST Sunday, Labour stalled at 5% in two opinion polls. Its German sister, the Social Democrat Party (SDP), slumped to 20% of the vote, its lowest share since the Second World War. In France, a once-great Socialist party got barely 7% in this year’s presidential election. In contrast, left-wing challenger, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, received 19.58% of the vote. A one-time supporter of François Mitterrand, he remains loyal to socialist principles that the pliable president abandoned in power.

In Germany now, and for a long time in France, a far-right has emerged. It is embedded among those afflicted with real or imagined fears of migration and globalisation.