Just over a hundred years have passed since the greatest failure of
European social democracy. The workers’ movement was unable to halt the
needless slaughter of World War I. First, Jean Jaures was assassinated,
silencing his powerful anti-militarist voice. Soon after, the German SPD
voted to authorize war credits for the Kaiser. Proletarian
internationalism gave way to social patriotism.
Between the collapse of the Second International during the war and
the divergent responses to the Russian Revolution, a rift opened up
between socialists and communists in Europe that persists until this
day.
Representatives of these two political traditions now find themselves
at odds in a Eurogroup presided by Jeroen Dijsselbloem of the Dutch
PvdA. The backdrop is one where events in the Balkans have the
capability of triggering a much bigger conflict. And once more a
situation has arisen where ultimatums issued by the strong against the
weak run the risk of only making the conflagration worse.
The key points of disagreement are not technical but political. The
eventual size of Greece’s primary surplus, for instance, is important
for economic but also symbolic reasons. The real issue is what sort of
Europe will emerge out of the ongoing negotiations.
One possible outcome is a deepening of a Europe split on
debtor-creditor lines, organized in a manner that leads to an
ever-increasing divergence between the core and the periphery. This is a
Europe divided into those who give charity and those who beg for alms,
as opposed to a Europe with automatic mechanisms of solidarity. This is a
Europe acting as a potent incubator for mutual recriminations and rapid
breakdowns in good will.
Merkel, Rajoy, and Passos Coelho all favour this outcome. In spite of
their different national circumstances, they are united in their
preference for a hard line on account of shared preferences and a shared
project. The ties that bind them are ideological.
Many social democrats too are reproducing the debtor-creditor fault
line. In the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great
Depression, with democracy being hollowed out, with inequality on the
rise, and with the far right on the march, social democracy is once more
unable to act as a cohesive European actor. And the rise of Syriza has
exposed its internal contradictions.
Read more: Which Side Are You On, Jeroen Dijsselbloem?
