The European right is in retreat

The financial crisis boosted the European right. The pandemic is helping the left.

European politicians.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

For several years after the 2008 financial crisis, it seemed that any brand of European lefty party, from socialist to milquetoast liberal, was on the road to extinction. Center-right or even far-right parties dominated elections from the Nordics to Hungary. The one high-profile success on the left, Greece's Syriza, was mercilessly crushed by European Union technocrats in 2015.

But today, conservative parties are struggling and the broad left is showing signs of strength across Europe. It's a tentative sign that the far-right extremism fueled by the 2008 economic crisis is running into its limits.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.