The European Left Party

Authors:
Richard Dunphy
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Luke March
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Transnational party federations (TNPs) have been critical prisms through which to analyse the EU’s tensions between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. This study focuses on the radical left TNP, the European Left Party (EL), founded in 2004. It centres on four general questions: first; the conditions under which TNPs might be successful; second, how the EL compares with other TNPs, particularly those of the broad centre-left, the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the European Green Party (EGP); third, to what extent the EL has fostered a consensus over positions towards the EU previously conspicuously lacking among the radical left; and fourth, the degree to which the EL has enabled an increase in the electoral or policy influence of the radical left in Europe. The study highlights the strengths and weaknesses of TNPs as networks of Europeanisation; they have important roles in the EU political system but remain timid actors with only selectively developed transnationalism. It shows how the EL is a paradoxical actor; on the one hand it has brought radical left transnational co-operation to historical highs; on the other it is both less influential than the PES and less transnational and consolidated than the EGP. Such paradoxes result from persistent internal divisions between Europeanists and sovereigntists, as well as suboptimal internal structures. The influence of the EL is also paradoxical. It has emerged as a centre of attraction for the European radical left promoting the Left Europeanist position, but is a long way from being hegemonic or unchallenged on the left.
eISBN:
9781526144485
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526144485
Online Publication Date:
13 Dec 2019
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‘Can the radical left somehow bend the European project to its purposes? That’s one of the main questions arising from a new book by Richard Dunphy and Luke March, two of the few Anglophone academics who have given radical-left parties serious attention. Their latest work looks at the experience of the European Left Party, a transnational party formed in 2004 by some of Europe’s leading RLPs to coordinate their efforts. It opens out into a wider picture of the contemporary radical left and its approach to European integration.’
Jacobin
May 2020

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Subjects:
Politics
Keywords:
Radical left; Europeanisation; Euroscepticism; Communism; Parties
Page Count:
300
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
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