Photo Gallery A Center-Left Meltdown
Germany's Social Democrats have had difficulty gaining traction in this year's campaign. Candidate Martin Schulz is actually broadly liked, but the party is mired at 21 percent in the polls on the eve of the election.
Nowhere has the demise of the center left been as dramatic as in France, where the Socialists disintegrated before April's presidential election. The victor, Emmanuel Macron, left the Socialists to start his own party. He is more of a social liberal than a classic social democrat.
In Britain, the Labour Party swooned badly, but has lately seemed to be picking up momentum under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Once a center-left party, Corbyn has steered Labour hard left -- and other social democratic parties in Europe are taking notice.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, has presided over a stable economy with low unemployment and decent growth. But he is still likely to lose on Oct. 15 when Austrians go to the polls.
Not long ago, Corbyn had been largely writtten off. But now, young people, those who have been left behind, minorities and union members see Corbyn as the poster boy of post-capitalism. He appeals to all of them when he speaks of the widespread anger about a society that tolerates poverty and inequality even as a small number of people keeps getting richer.
Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the Danish Social Democrats since 2015, has been exploring new ways to keep her party relevant, including refusing to rule out cooperation with the right-wing populst Danish People's Party.
The demise of the Socialists in France has underlined the trouble that European social democrats have been encountering in recent election cycles. Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon managed just 6.4 percent of the vote.
Social democracy had looked to be in good hands until recently, with Matteo Renzi occupying the prime minister position. But he gambled away his job with a referendum and now the left in Italy looks just as splintered as always.
