Europe's Social Democratic Parties Struggle for Electoral Relevancy 

Boris Johnson’s resounding victory in local and regional elections in Britain last week is dismaying not just for the country’s storied Labour Party, but also for mainstream leftist parties on the continent of Europe, most of which are also struggling for electoral relevancy.  

From Italy to Germany, France to the countries of Central Europe, the traditional parties of social democracy are largely in the doldrums and have increasingly become political bystanders rather than participants. Britain’s Labour Party saw its vote slump by an extraordinary 25% last week in the elections for local and regional governments in England.   Labour politicians had thought their drubbing by Johnson in the general election of 2019 would mark their historic low-point — but they did even worse last week.   Speaking as the vote tallies started to unfold, and as scores of local government seats in former Labour strongholds in the north of England and the Midlands fell to the Conservatives, also known as Tories, embattled Labour leader Keir Starmer admitted his party had “lost the trust of working people.”