Social democratic parties across central Europe are suffering an almost total wipeout, as rightwing nationalism flourishes on the European Union's eastern flank. The recent historic defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary by Péter Magyar was celebrated by progressives, but Magyar leads a centre-right conservative government, not a leftist one. In Bulgaria, nationalist and Moscow-friendly Prime Minister Rumen Radev has taken a draconian line on migration and criticises the EU's green deal, while the Socialist party failed to win a single seat for the first time since 1989.
Widespread Decline of the Left
The Czech Republic's Social Democratic party, once a political powerhouse, has been wiped out in two successive elections. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš pursues a Trump-style 'Czechia First' agenda. In Slovenia, another Trump admirer is poised to become prime minister. Slovakia's Robert Fico has seen his party expelled from the EU's social democratic umbrella group due to his rightwing populist views. Even in Poland, where the far-right Law and Justice party was ousted in 2023, the progressive left scored less than 10% in polls.
Roots of the Shift
This political transformation contrasts sharply with the 1990s, when former communist parties softened the pain of marketisation. However, corruption and clientelism, along with the 2008 financial crash and the 2015 migration crisis, drove blue-collar, rural, and elderly voters to the populist right. Centre-left parties are damned by association with austerity and a failing establishment, while central Europe's Soviet legacy, conservative Christian values, and east-west inequality within the EU fuel nationalism.
The impotence of progressive politics means the EU's eastern flank remains a breeding ground for Orbán-style populism. In Poland and Hungary, centre-right parties have been vehicles to reclaim democracies from authoritarian governments, securing minority rights and better EU relations. Yet social and economic divides fester. Central Europe urgently needs a new left that defends democratic values and charts a more egalitarian future.
