Wu Huiping: Development Trends of Left-wing Social Movements in Western Europe Amidst Political Changes
Since the start of the 21st century, left-wing social movements have gained significant momentum in major Western European countries. After achieving initial social influence, they rapidly evolved into a new type of radical left-party. Their political mobilization and organizational operations are characterized by innovative features, providing an excellent case study for observing and analyzing the dissemination and development of left-wing thought in Europe.
The Developmental Trend of Left-wing Social Movements in Western Europe
Under the heavy impact of a series of crises, the European political and social ecosystem has undergone a complex evolution. Within this context, left-wing social movements have shown an upward trend in Western European countries such as France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. In recent years, they have gradually developed into important political forces capable of influencing general election results, attracting widespread international attention. In France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a former Minister Delegate for Vocational Education, leads the "La France Insoumise" (LFI/France Unbowed [1]) movement, steadily increasing its influence amidst fierce political competition. In February 2016, the movement held its founding rally and formally established itself as a political party in January 2017. Mélenchon subsequently ran in the 2017 presidential election as a candidate jointly supported by his party and the French Communist Party, garnering support from nearly one-fifth of the electorate. In 2022, Mélenchon contested the presidential election again. He not only ranked third in the first round—trailing Marine Le Pen, the candidate for the National Rally, by only 200,000 to 300,000 votes—but in the second round, he led the New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES) to surpass the National Rally as the second-largest political force in the National Assembly. This resulted in the center-left alliance led by Macron losing control of parliament. "France Unbowed" evolved from a social movement into a party, yet it has retained movement-style forms of activity even after its institutionalization.
In Italy, the "Five Star Movement" (M5S) has achieved great success and maintained its political influence through a distinctive stance that blends left-wing and right-wing populist political platforms. The movement originated in 2009 from the "Friends of Beppe Grillo" movement, launched by Italian comedian Beppe Grillo on his personal website. Using exaggerated and extreme comedic performances to critique current affairs, he lambasted domestic political corruption, EU policies, and the perils of the refugee wave. By attracting grassroots participation through blogs, Facebook, and other online methods, he rapidly boosted the movement's popularity, leading to the establishment of the M5S party and the strengthening of its institutional building. Starting in 2010, the M5S participated in local elections and rose rapidly in the Italian political arena; at its peak in the 2018 national election, it secured 32.7% of the vote to become the largest party. Following this, the M5S participated in two successive coalition governments, though it frequently clashed with its partners, leading to the collapse of the Draghi government in 2022. Nevertheless, the party ranked third in the September 2022 parliamentary elections and returned to its role as an opposition party.
In Spain, the party "Podemos" ([We Can]) emerged as a new political force during the European debt crisis. Starting May 15, 2011, the "Indignados" [2] protest movement broke out in Spain, mobilizing youth and the unemployed via the "Real Democracy NOW" digital platform and social networks like Twitter and Facebook. A series of protests swept through nearly 60 Spanish cities. In March 2014, Pablo Iglesias, a professor of political science at the Complutense University of Madrid, formally established Podemos based on this movement. The party won five seats in that year's European Parliament elections and made a sudden breakthrough in the 2015 Spanish general election to become the third-largest party in parliament; it is currently the fourth-largest.
In Germany, various protest movements have emerged in an endless stream, though the organizational strength of left-wing protest movements remains generally fragmented, and their momentum is relatively weak compared to the movements in the aforementioned countries. The most influential force has been the "Aufstehen" ([Stand Up]) collective movement. Unlike other movements, "Aufstehen" was initiated by prominent figures from the Left Party (Die Linke), Sahra Wagenknecht and Oskar Lafontaine. Formally launched in September 2018, it recruited supporters widely through its official website and garnered support from well-known figures in the cultural sphere. Its goal was to launch a national grassroots movement to gather and mobilize those disinterested in existing politics, using entirely new political forms to spark public debate on social issues of common concern to the left.
Overall, left-wing social movements mostly propose alternative programs to capitalism that center on social justice and encompass diverse issues. Mélenchon explicitly opposes capitalism, takes a pro-union stance, advocates for taxing the wealthy, and demands the elimination of all forms of inequality, including those based on family background, race, and gender. The M5S focuses on livelihood issues such as social welfare, employment, universal education, and tax cuts; it advocates reducing the work week to 20 hours, calls for tax exemptions, promotes a thorough reform of the health insurance system, and demands strengthened market regulation. After taking power, it introduced a series of livelihood policies, including a universal basic income and labor protections. The German Left Party advocates for creating more opportunities for labor-management co-determination, social wealth redistribution through higher taxes on the wealthy and the introduction of a minimum wage, and demands an end to privatization policies. Beyond this, left-wing social movements pay equal attention to broad issues such as ecological protection and disarmament, fully demonstrating the pluralistic characteristics of their political agendas.
At the same time, left-wing social movements exhibit distinct populist characteristics. Western European left-wing social movements and their associated parties are unapologetic about their left-wing populist orientation. Mélenchon utilizes the concept of left-wing populism to pit "the people" against "the elite," arguing that the severe environmental and social crises facing humanity can only be solved by the people. He advocates attracting dissatisfied voters by "convening the people" against the elite. Mélenchon’s concept of "the people" has clear cross-class attributes and employs a method of exclusion—defining the category by determining "who they are not," such as excluding financial oligarchs from "the people." The M5S rose through a populist path phrased as "neither left nor right" but which is actually a mixture of left and right positions. While proposing a left-wing socio-economic program, it adheres to an anti-immigrant stance characteristic of right-wing populism. This allows it to find favor with both sides in the context of social crisis, maximizing its range of supporters.
Basic Characteristics of Left-wing Social Movements in Western Europe
While the specific forms and the political and social influence of Western European left-wing social movements vary, they possess common characteristics in terms of their social base, mobilization forms, and organizational structures that clearly distinguish them from traditional political parties.
First, regarding political mobilization, left-wing social movements mostly utilize online platforms and social media to achieve "Internet democracy." In the Internet era, various networks and new media have become the primary battlefields for left-wing social movements to promote their agendas and build momentum. Social movements and parties in various countries invest heavily in web operations, establishing specialized digital teams and utilizing various online social tools to publish political views, communicate with public opinion, solicit policy ideas, and conduct social mobilization. Among them, Podemos flexibly uses various online tools and software, engaging in dialogue with the public via popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, as well as a space named "Plaza Podemos" established on the Reddit news site. It uses Loomio as a decision-making platform for online communication; currently, more than half of Loomio users worldwide are within the activity circles or local organizations of Podemos. The party also utilizes other open-source digital tools, such as real-time polling apps and citizen initiative platforms, to launch online crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds for various activities. In its early days in 2014, it participated in the European Parliament elections through crowdfunding. Through an effective digital strategy, Podemos has developed 370,000 members online.
Leaders of left-wing social movements also excel at using new media in their daily activities. For example, during the 2017 campaign, Mélenchon used holographic projection technology to achieve the effect of speaking simultaneously in Lyon and Paris. Former M5S leader Beppe Grillo promoted his political views and philosophy in multiple languages through blogs, Facebook, and other online platforms. The meetup.com social platform he co-created with internet operations expert Gianroberto Casaleggio organized over 1,000 exchange meetings between 2009 and 2013. Luigi Di Maio, who succeeded Grillo as M5S leader, had about ten times as many followers on Facebook as the leader of the Italian Democratic Party. Germany's "Aufstehen" movement relies on action groups distributed throughout the country to conduct activities, spreading information via websites, social media, and email to invite local supporters to participate.
Second, regarding organizational structure, left-wing social movements mostly adopt innovative operational and governance models to achieve direct democracy. Emerging left-wing social movements and the parties developed from them mostly break away from the top-down hierarchical management structures of traditional parties, adopting horizontal organizational levels for operation and management while fully utilizing Internet tools in all links of the process. Compared to traditional parties, their structures are relatively loose; they do not introduce complex election and delegation systems and are more free and open. They aim to be as inclusive as possible, placing few constraints on members—anyone who identifies with their political views can join, often without even needing to pay membership fees. Many movements or parties have their own websites where joining is as simple as registering with a name, city, and email. Groups like "France Unbowed" and the M5S mostly use online media to manage the party, distribute action plans and pamphlets, and conduct discussions, voting, elections, and fundraising. Candidates are generated directly online from the bottom up. These organizations are activity-oriented, using successive waves of "movements" to connect with and draw in the masses. Podemos adopts a democratic form of parallel organization, establishing over 1,000 grassroots organizations called "Circles" across Spain to realize a bottom-up process of democratic participation. The "Aufstehen" movement adopts a localized, decentralized organizational model, forming action groups in every town or region to focus on the daily concerns of local residents. Anyone can check the website map for the location, contact information, and activity schedule of their local action group and become a movement activist.
Third, regarding the social composition of supporters, left-wing social movements exhibit characteristics of youthfulness and a cross-class nature. In major Western European countries, the main force of left-wing social movements and emerging parties shows a youthful trend, with higher levels of education correlating to higher acceptance. This is the greatest difference between the emerging Western European left and the traditional left, whose class base was primarily composed of the working class, low-to-middle income earners, and the unemployed. Young intellectual elites who grew up in the post-Cold War environment often resonate with left-wing social movements in several ways: First, they critique the capitalist mode of production and lifestyle. Many young people believe capitalism has fallen into a systemic predicament that highlights institutional flaws requiring reckoning and transformation. Second, they focus on environmental protection. Young people are more concerned than other age groups with issues concerning the future of humanity, such as climate change; the COVID-19 pandemic intensified their sense of concern and urgency regarding environmental issues. Third, they oppose inequality. Young people have a stronger desire to promote social progress, particularly opposing inequalities based on innate factors like race, origin, and gender, as well as those that cannot be changed through effort. However, young people's positions on the EU are polarized: young French voters have a lower identification with the EU than those over 55, while Italian youth support the EU far more than those over 45. Additionally, the Italian left-wing social movements use a hybrid left-right program to win widespread support from voters across generations and classes, with supporters showing breadth and diversity across gender, age, occupation, and geography.
The Driving Forces Behind Left-wing Social Movements in Western Europe
The rise of left-wing social movements in several Western European countries has multi-faceted roots and drivers. It is the result of the combined action of multiple factors since the start of the 21st century, including globalization, the technological revolution, and political turmoil.
First, the intensification of the gap between rich and poor under neoliberalism has further exacerbated social contradictions. Since the end of the Cold War, globalization has entered a new phase of rapid development, and neoliberalism has become prevalent across Western European capitalist countries. Industrial structures in various nations underwent deep adjustments; for a time, the process of globalization and technological progress pushed the middle class toward a collective rise as the backbone of society. However, after a period of development, the neoliberal economy became unsustainable, resulting in the social reality of a continually widening wealth gap. This led to drastic changes in the social structure formed in Western Europe after World War II, triggering new social conflicts and contradictions. In particular, the successive international financial crisis and the European debt crisis caused a sustained decline in the European economy, bringing about social problems such as a surge in unemployment. In countries like Italy and Spain, young people were particularly hard hit by the economic crisis. The youth unemployment rate in Spain has remained above 50%, reaching as high as 69% in some regions in 2015. Western Europe has a long tradition of radical left-wing revolutions and student movements [3]. Faced with bleak employment prospects and various social injustices, some young students, members of the former middle class who have fallen into the underclass, and low-income groups found themselves powerless. They discovered resonance in the political programs of left-wing social movements and new-type political parties. Consequently, they moved toward the opposite side of the establishment, began criticizing the developmental direction of neoliberalism, and sought to find alternative solutions.
Second, the restructuring of traditional politics and party systems has accelerated. Since the 21st century, the role of traditional European political parties as political representatives in social and political life has continued to decline. Their organizational and mobilization capacities have weakened, their public credibility has steadily fallen, and their social foundations have increasingly loosened, evidenced by significant drops in membership numbers and vote counts. Many major traditional parties have seen a serious decline in their ability to control the political situation, and the degree of political fragmentation across European countries has deepened, exacerbating political competition and deadlock. In countries such as France and Italy, the traditional party landscape is on the verge of collapse after the shocks of several general elections; the influence of formerly governing parties is waning, with their vote shares experiencing "cliff-like" [4] drops. Meanwhile, emerging political forces have risen rapidly, posing a powerful challenge to the party landscape and squeezing the survival space of traditional parties. Among these, various social movements have become important channels for leading and representing public opinion, attracting large numbers of supporters and generating relatively lasting social impact. In these emerging social movements, "political amateurs" [5] have become political leaders. These core figures accumulate popularity through the power of "fans" rather than through the organizational work of a political party. They take a clear-cut stand against the existing system and political corruption, promote propositions to protect the interests of the grassroots, and adopt innovative forms of organizational mobilization to attract voters who are dissatisfied and angry with current politics. As German scholar Henrik Müller has pointed out, Western democracy is undergoing a fundamental structural transformation; political competition is intensifying and the threshold for participation is lowering, eliminating the need for complex organizational structures and long-term relational ties, which facilitates the organizational mobilization of social movements.
Third, the technological revolution is driving a transformation of Western democratic politics. The revolution in information technology and the popularization of social media have led to the continuous emergence of entirely new methods and channels for political mobilization. Especially in the new wave of digital transformation, the digital economy—represented by "Internet Plus" and "Smart Plus" [6]—has flourished. "Digital existence" has shifted from a hot topic to a reality. The popularization of the internet and social media has, to a great extent, reshaped the power structure of Western democratic politics, intensified the deconstruction of traditional party politics, and driven the reform of party politics and the innovation of party models. On one hand, the emergence of the internet has greatly influenced and changed people's ideas, political concepts, and behavioral patterns. Political transparency and mass online political participation have become the prevailing trend; online democracy, direct democracy, and new political phenomena have brought unprecedented challenges to traditional indirect democracy. On the other hand, technological progress has provided technical means and innovative channels for de-bureaucratized parallel organizations and forms of democratic participation that are transparent, equal, and real-time. In past party competition, traditional parties often relied on strong organizational resources accumulated through years of operation to form a competitive advantage; many parties evolved into elite, nationalized, bureaucratized, and "cartel-type" parties. In the era of "digital existence," however, political leaders and even political amateurs can use the internet as a main battlefield to speak directly with the people. Various and diverse online platforms and software tools can quickly realize organizational, mobilization, and communication functions on a local or national scale. This phenomenon poses a tremendous challenge to traditional political parties.
Fourth, the multiple crises in Europe have catalyzed political shifts and social problems. Since the 21st century, Europe has been hit by a succession of crises, including terrorist attacks, the international economic and financial crisis, the European debt crisis, and the refugee crisis. These have brought about political deadlock and led to regime changes in multiple countries. The social realities of unstable economic and employment prospects and the large-scale increase in immigrants and refugees have further exacerbated conflicts of interest between native and migrant populations. This has also shocked some conservative voters, especially the culturally conservative and the social underclass, bringing about a rise in identity politics and deepening social problems and contradictions. The political, economic, cultural, and social consequences of these multiple crises have overlapped, triggering a wave of populism across Europe for a time. Some left-wing social movements have also added fuel to the fire [7], using the situation to increase their influence. The countries where left-wing social movements have been more successful, such as Italy and Spain, are precisely the weakest links under the heavy blows of Europe's multiple crises. Diverging from the pro-European stance held by traditional political parties in Western European countries, most left-wing social movements—represented by the Five Star Movement—hold a skeptical or even negative attitude toward European integration. They oppose the achievements of integration such as the EU, the Euro, and the European Stability Mechanism; they openly advocate for national referendums on exiting the Eurozone or "Brexit" and oppose the cosmopolitanism promoted by mainstream political elites.
Developmental Bottlenecks and Future Trends of Western European Left-Wing Social Movements
Overall, as compared to the traditional left, Western Europe’s emerging left-wing social movements are more open and flexible, attracting significant public support and achieving certain political results. The experiences and practices of these emerging movements and their successor parties during their rise—such as their innovative practices in political mobilization, operational forms, and organizational structures—provide enlightenment and reference for the modernizing transformation of traditional political parties.
However, in the process of developing from movements into parties, Western European emerging left-wing movements still face many internal and external constraints. On one hand, the greatest constraint on the further development of left-wing social movements and their successor parties is a serious lack of governing capacity. Although the traditional party system is under immense pressure, the role of political parties in Western political life remains irreplaceable, especially in terms of holding parliamentary positions and participating in government administration. Emerging left-wing parties transformed from social movements generally lack experience in state governance. Many of their political demands are too idealistic, radical, or impractical; their ability to deconstruct European politics far exceeds their ability to construct it. For instance, the Five Star Movement suffered from a lack of governing capacity and found it difficult to advance its administrative program in accordance with its campaign slogans. Within the same year it took power in 2018, its polling support plummeted to second place. It performed poorly in some cities it governed and in the 2021 local elections; in the 2022 national elections, it lost a large number of voters, with its vote share more than halved compared to the previous election.
On the other hand, left-wing social movements face fierce competition from right-wing populism. The American scholar Francis Fukuyama once pointed out that a general situation exists in Western countries where the left is weak and right-wing populism is prevalent. He argued the main reason for this phenomenon is the failure of the left in the ideological field, while the right has occupied the ideological high ground with the concept of libertarianism. European right-wing populism similarly focuses on people's livelihoods and seeks supporters among low-income groups, which has significantly siphoned off supporters from left-wing social movements. In its campaign platform, the National Rally in France emphasizes increasing the people's purchasing power and ensuring that French people have priority in obtaining jobs and social relief; its candidate, Marine Le Pen, is most popular in traditional industrial areas and among workers and employees. In Germany, the Die Linke (The Left) party hoped to assemble left-wing political forces through the "Aufstehen" (Stand Up) movement, but the movement did not help the party move beyond its marginal status, and its political and social influence cannot match that of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dragged on for several years, has seriously hindered the European economy. Geopolitical conflicts resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict have shaken the European security landscape, triggering an energy supply crisis and price hikes, threatening the prospects for post-pandemic economic recovery, and bringing about serious livelihood issues. Europe continues to move from one crisis to the next, raising the risk of social conflict and exacerbating political turmoil, which provides an opportunity for left-wing social movements to further grow their influence. After developing from movements into parties, whether left-wing social forces can continue to enhance their political and social influence will depend largely on whether they can improve their governing capacity, successfully resist competition from right-wing populism in terms of their programs and ideology, and propose more persuasive and feasible alternative solutions.
(About the Author: Professor, Institute of German Studies, Tongji University) Web Editor: Tong Xin Source: Contemporary World, Issue 1, 2023