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The Emergence of Pensioners’ Parties in Contemporary Europe

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A Young Generation Under Pressure?

Abstract

Party politics in contemporary Europe often exhibit marked generational biases. Older voters are both more likely to turn out to vote to support political parties at elections and also to be members of political parties (Goerres 2009). Conversely, younger voters are increasingly disinclined to participate in formal party-electoral politics leading to concern over the ‘greying’ of party democracy and of socio-political organizations (Henn et al. 2002; Phelps 2006; Goerres 2009; and Robertson 2009). Certain (types of) parties are disproportionately supported by older age groups. Indeed, in certain cases – as with the members of the British Conservative Party during 1990s (Whiteley et al. 1994) or the electorate of the Czech Republic’s Communist Party (Hanley 2001) – older age cohorts can find themselves in the majority, significantly affecting the way such parties understand, prioritize and respond to issues of the day and often tending to narrow their political appeal over time.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Following Goerres (2009, p. 72), I take a ‘grey interest’ party to be any organization contesting (or planning to contest) elections which signals through its name and/or founding documents that it seeks mainly to represent the interests of pensioners and/or older voters.

  2. 2.

    Founded as a party in 1989, Die Grauen formally dissolved in February 2008 in consequence of party funding scandal (Kölnische Rundschau 2007), but has been replaced by two successor pensioners’ parties: the Die Grauen – Generationspartei and the Allianz Graue Panther. The former, whose leader is significantly younger than retirement age, is committed to the ‘grey populist’ strategy described later in this paper.

  3. 3.

    Similarly, Italy’s small Partito dei Pensionati has shuttled between the right-wing Pole of Liberty bloc with whom it was allied in the 2001 parliamentary elections and its centre-left rival the L’Unione/Olive Tree coalition, which the PP joined in February 2006 before leaving to rejoin the Pole of Liberty (later, People of Freedom (PDL) in November 2006. In the June 2009 European elections, the party formed part of the heterogeneous Pole of Autonomies coalition, but its MEP was not re-elected.

  4. 4.

    As in Western democracies, post-communist welfare and pension systems in CEE proved resistant to reform efforts, although some states (Hungary 1997; Poland 1998; Latvia 2001; and Russia 2002) did introduce pension reforms on World Bank models by creating a second tier of (compulsory) individual accounts.

  5. 5.

    Conversely, where pension provision is more universal and state-centred, retirees may form a more homogenous and cohesive group in terms of income, lifestyle and interests. This seems most marked in central and eastern Europe, reflecting the lower levels of differentiation of incomes and pension provision under state socialism, the role of the state as the main pension provider and post-transition income maintenance strategies after the fall of communism (Večerník 2006; Vanhuysse 2006).

  6. 6.

    Others come to opposite conclusions suggesting that the corporatist-style devolution of power to social partners impedes the development of new parties and makes interest group politics more attractive (Tavits 2006).

  7. 7.

    Author’s telephone interview with the President of ZDUS, Dr Mateja Kozuh-Novak. 19 February 2009.

  8. 8.

    Eurobarometer polling date for western Europe from 1992 cited by Walker (1998) finds that between 14% (Germany) and 42% (Portugal) of those aged over 60 would consider joining an

    age-based party promoting their interests. The average across the (then) EU12 was 22%.

  9. 9.

    Similarly, evidence for the Czech Republic suggests that the Czech Pensioners for a Secure Life (DŽJ) party gained no more than13% of pensioners’ voters during its best national election performance in 1992 (Kopeček 2005; Večerník 2006, p. 6) and was favoured by one-in-five Czech voters aged 60 or above during a short surge in popularity in the run-up to elections in 1998 (Hartl, Huk and Haberlová 1999).

  10. 10.

    As Mair (2001) notes, on aggregate, in West European democracies, even large, well-established parties such as Christian Democrats and Social Democrats only manage to garner the electoral support of around 40% of those who say that they are potentially sympathetic to these parties.

  11. 11.

    Interview with the General Secretary of DeSUS Pavel Brglez, Ljubljana, 9 December 2008.

  12. 12.

    For example, in 2005, significant elements of the Antwerp-based Flemish pensioners party WOW joined far-right Vlaams Blok (now Vlaams Belang) party contributing to the organization of VB’s Seniors’ Forum in that city. Similarly, in 2006, Russian Pensioners’ Partymerged into the

    left-wing nationalist Fair Russia (SR) bloc and the Czech Pensioners for a Secure Life (DŽJ) was absorbed by the populist, eurosceptic Independent Democrats party (NEZ).

  13. 13.

    GIL’s success in 2006 was also facilitated by the charismatic appeal of its leader, the retired intelligence officer Rafi Eitan, well known as the commander of the covert operation in 1960 which abducted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann for trial in to Jerusalem.

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  1. Senior Lecturer in Politics at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, London, UK

    Seán Hanley

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  1. Seán Hanley
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Correspondence to Seán Hanley .

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  1. Generationen (SRzG), Stiftung für die Rechte zukünftiger, Ludwig-Erhard-Str. 16a, Oberursel, 61440, Germany

    Joerg Tremmel

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Hanley, S. (2010). The Emergence of Pensioners’ Parties in Contemporary Europe. In: Tremmel, J. (eds) A Young Generation Under Pressure?. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03483-1_12

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