Social democracy against the insurgent far right

France stopped the far right in the recent legislative elections. The only feasible government that can emerge from the resulting Parliament is a coalition of the united left and the centrists, and this coalition can only be built around the pro-European center-left. 

In the UK, the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer defeated the Conservative Party, after the party of Winston Churchill had become the party of Boris Johnson, coinciding with the madness of the Brexit referendum.

Starmer seeks to correct market failures and improve the welfare of workers. It also seems to have a meaningful interest in spreading power more evenly across the kingdom and in increasing again ties with Europe.

In Spain and Germany, there is a social democrat prime minister in a coalition government. Both Sanchez and Scholz are pillars of European integration and reliable partners of the European institutions. In the Scandinavian countries, social democrats remain strong, although they have been weakened and they also face threats from the far right. In Italy, the only alternative in the mid run to Meloni is the the center left of the Democratic Party.

In the European Union, a coalition form the center right to the greens, with the social democrats in the center, has left the far-right in any of its versions, out of the current majority. Therefore, a continuity of policies to fight climate change and to further integrate Europe must be expected. The strategy of those on the right (such as Manfred Weber) that wanted to move the balance to normalize part of the extremists, has failed.

Von der Leyen and Tusk are not social democrats. But they are very aware that the pro-European left, is a crucial part of the alliance that must keep Europe united in a world that faces enormous threats. Von der Leyen mentioned the federalist Manifesto of Ventotene, authored among others by the Italian Communist Altiero Spinelli, in her acceptance speech.

In the US, any alternative to Trumpism depends on the ability of the Democrats to build a strong coalition form the extreme left to the center-right, with credible leadership, in the name of democracy and reason.

Australia has a Labour Prime Minister. Chile, Brazil, and Colombia have leftist presidents with the support of the center-left, and all of them had to defeat dangerous far right populist politicians in their presidential elections.

It is true, the world has seen democracies captured by identitarian national populists like Modi, Orban, Erdogan or Netanyahu, but it has also seen how their opposition grows stronger and they can be defeated, as their peers have been defeated in Poland or in the UK.

The emerging social democratic leaders and parties are federalist, meaning a left where the organization of government (European integration, decentralization, administrative reform to make a better use of expert and dispersed knowledge), the organization of a multi-level democracy, is part of the egalitarian project, is a necessary condition of it.

It is not the same social democracy of the post second world war decades or of the 1980s in Spain. It is weaker but it is still central. It is impossible to defeat the insurgent far right without the modern social democratic parties. They have added to their doctrine the need for a green transition to fight climate change in a fair way. Our parties must be aware of their mistakes, but proud of their accomplishments, and work together to give hope to workers and middle classes.

The best of Europe is on the pitch

The best football (soccer) in the world is played in Europe, although there is a lot of good individual talent in other continents. But the best club and national teams are European and, to be more precise, Western European, as recently emphasized by Simon Kuper. Of the best eight teams in the Eurocup (those that played the quarter finals), only one was not from Western Europe (Turkey). The four semifinalists are Spain, England, The Netherlands and France. I know, the World Champion is Argentina, which is a European team of Argentinian expatriates with a coach that lives in Spain, that tend to play most of their friendly games in Europe.

The best individual players of these four teams are very different from many of the fans that cheer for them in the stands or in the streets of the cities where their teams play (sometimes with agressive nationalist chants or sexist slogans). Williams, Yamal, Gakpo, Bellingham, Saka, Mbappé, Kanté… are most of them descendants of immigrants that reached Europe sometimes in very difficult circumstances. Some of the best German players (Musiala, Rudiger, Gundogan), eliminated by Spain in the extra time of one of the quarter finals, are not precisely the model preferred by the far right party AfD. The contrast between the emerging stars of European football and some of the emerging (and also disturbing) stars of European politics could not be clearer, as highlighted by a recent article of Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times.

Some of these players have used their celebrity status to confront the far right (especially the French players), and the far right politicians have not resisted the temptation to criticise the players (especially when their teams lose).

In the last three decades, as the far right vote share has been increasing in France, the proportion of non-white players born in immigrant families in the national team has also been increasing. To be fair, most of the best French players have always had names that were not typically French (such as Platini, Fernández or Zidane), but now the pattern has consolidated: the team that defeated Portugal in the semi-final played with not a single player with a “French” name, with twelve players of originally African families playing during the game, and defeating the powerful Portugal. Thanks to the immigrants (and despite a mediocre typically French coach, Deschamps), France has become one of the best national football teams, when traditionally it was only in the middle class.

The success of European football is not only the success of descendants of African immigrants, but also the success of open borders and free movement in the European Union. The success of the English Premier League builds on the Bosman Ruling of the 1990s (this increased equality among national teams and decreased it among club teams, as brilliantly explained by Milanovic in an academic article), which banned foreign quotas. As a result, the English clubs had to open themselves and accept foreign talent. Today some of the best coaches and players in England are foreign. Unlike some suspected, this has not made the national team any worse, but in fact better, because now the best English players have to compete and cooperate with, and learn from, the best foreign experts.

Western European national teams are more diverse than Eastern European national teams. In one game with Serbia, I noticed that all the players had a name finishing with –ic. All the players of Georgia were bearded. A Turkish player had to be banned because he made a fascist salute. In these cases, probably the players are more similar to the fans in the stands. Deep historical and political currents explain this contrast.

Marine Le Pen, the French far right political leader, has dismissed the players’ appeals not to vote for her party claiming that they are billionaire elitists, in many cases playing abroad. They may be billionaire today and some of them may work abroad (which sometimes is a good thing that may do even Le Pen some good perhaps), but they know their origins very well, and the origins of their families. These superb players are the best of their countries, and the best of Europe, and not the political leaders that fear and criticise them.