Europe’s rightward drift and the myth of backwards Britain

It is an idée fixe among British Europhiles that continental Europe is a progressive place firmly wedded to left-wing parties and policies, and that in leaving the EU, Brexit Britain was demonstrating its irredeemably reactionary and backward nature.

In fact, as a brief examination of recent European elections and current governments reveals, this is the exact opposite of the truth: across Europe the right and often the far-right are on the rise. Meanwhile, the once mighty Socialist and Social Democratic parties that dominated the continent are in eclipse, if not facing outright extinction. Only in Britain is a left-wing party poised to take power.

Until yesterday, Spain was the outlier bucking this trend, with the venerable Socialist Workers’ party, the PSOE, under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, firmly in power for the past five years, governing in coalition with the far-left populist Podemos party.