Resetting the Left in Europe: Challenges, attempts and obstacles

Ristić, Irena, ed. (2021) Resetting the Left in Europe: Challenges, attempts and obstacles. Series Edited volumes . Institute of social sciences, Belgrade. ISBN 978-86-7093-245-6

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Abstract

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe is struggling with itself. Inequalities are growing, nationalism is increasing, and populism is exploding. New emerging political movements, if these exist at all, are predominantly arising from the (populist) right, despite the fact that the majority of people in need belong to traditionally left constituencies. But instead of embracing these people, the Left is struggling too: with the wrong paths of the Third way it opted to take during the 1990s, with the consequences of globalization, and – most of all – with detaching itself from the dominating capitalistic economic order and offering a sustainable economic, political and social alternative. This volume sheds light on the theoretical and political challenges that the Left has faced over the past three decades, looks at attempts at and hopes for new beginnings, and outlines the challenges and prospects encountered on the road to a recovery. And, among the many conclusions we can draw, one certainly cannot be dismissed: the overlapping of the crises that both Europe and the Left are facing is not a coincidence, but moreover a sign that the decline of Europe is closely linked to the decline of the Left. Consequently, neither Europe nor the Left will be able to reconsolidate themselves without one another.

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