The Disillusionment of European Socialists

Abstract

The creation of the Party of European Socialists in November 1992 marked a new stage in the process of cooperation among Socialists of the European Union. In fact, given the stagnation of the previous phase, the PES contributed to reorganizing and heightening cooperation within European Socialism. The PES imposed itself and was gradually recognized as the unchallenged organizational center of coordination among Socialists at the European Union level, bringing a new dynamic to regional Social Democratic “integration.” More homogenous than the Union of Socialist Parties of the European Community (UPSCE), founded in 1974, the PES is today more coherent and better equipped than its traditional partner and adversary, the EPP (European People’s Party), to carry out “effective” actions within the European institutions. The PES’s political influence has grown (especially through the party leaders’ conferences) and its authority has been more clearly asserted and consolidated at the European level.² Yet, despite its increased strength, the PES, like all pan-European parties, is in reality only a “proto-party,” a term indicative of a restricted partisan profile, even an elliptical one, and clearly incomplete.³ The reinforced PES remains a weak integrative institution.⁴

We would like to thank our colleagues who graciously provided us with information and shared their thoughts with us in order to write this chapter: Yves Léonard for Portugal, Luis Ramiro for Spain, Marc Lazar for Italy, John Crowley for Great Britain, Swante Ersson for Sweden, Gerrit Voerman for the Netherlands, and Pascal Delwit for Belgium.