Why copying the populist right isn’t going to save the left
Social democratic parties have been losing ground for more than two decades – but pandering to rightwing anxieties about immigration is not the solution.
By Cas Mudde
Among the old stalwarts of the centre-left, there is a simple explanation for the decline of the parties they used to lead: immigration. In recent interviews with the Guardian, Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair and the former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi all sounded the same note, declaring that Europe must “get a handle on migration” to stop rightwing populism. Hardly a week passes without some candidate or columnist declaring that liberals will only regain power when they lock down the borders.
The obsession with immigration is not an accident. It reflects a widely held belief that the decline of the grand parties of the centre-left across Europe – the Socialist party (PS) in France, the Democratic party (PD) in Italy, the Social Democratic party (SPD) in Germany – has been caused by the rise of the new parties of the populist radical right, who have “stolen” the old working-class vote with a nativist, even authoritarian, message. Consequently, centre-left politicians have been scrambling to come up with policies to “win back” the working class. (Blair was already worrying about this in 2001, according to his former EU adviser Stephen Wall, who recalled the prime minister saying: “The one thing that could lose me the next election is immigration.”)