The Death of the Left-Wing in The West
- Tiago Caixado
- Oct 20
- 3 min read
by Tiago Caixado
During the twentieth century, the Left took control of Western democracies to determine their moral and political path. The Left maintained a specific goal to establish equality in a capital-based world through Attlee's British welfare state and Roosevelt's New Deal in America as well as Mitterrand's France and the Scandinavian system. The political power base that existed before the twenty-first century began has completely vanished during the first half of this new century.
The Western world faces a complete breakdown of centre-left and progressive political parties throughout its entire region. The British public received Keir Starmer's Labour government with high hopes for a victorious comeback but they now criticize the administration for its lack of strong leadership and its focus on administrative matters. Starmer has focused on technocratic governance during his time in office through his implementation of cautious policy changes and his focus on fiscal management and his pursuit of political acceptability. The party has lost its core beliefs which made young voters choose Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's new political group called "Your Party." The Corbyn-Sultana movement exists as an early stage yet it demonstrates the current split within the Left because some members want practical leadership while others want to uphold their ethical principles.
The collapse is not confined to Britain. The Socialist Party of France exists in a diminished form because it controls only a few seats in the National Assembly. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally now controls the working-class vote which used to belong to the Left, while President Macron leads as a centrist who lacks any clear political direction. The Left currently faces two major issues because it has lost its ability to communicate effectively and its core supporters have abandoned it according to Le Monde.
The Social Democrats remain in power through their coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats yet their polling numbers show signs of becoming extremely low. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz encounters mounting public disapproval because his administration lacks clear direction and living expenses continue to rise and his leadership style seems detached from representing any specific group. The Greens political party in Germany suffered harm to their reputation because they supported military aid to Ukraine which upset their pacifist supporters. According to Der Spiegel, nearly half of Green voters now identify as “politically homeless.”
Perhaps the most striking case is Spain, where the radical-left project Podemos has virtually collapsed. The insurgent energy of the past ten years has disappeared into the mainstream Socialist Party under Pedro Sánchez. The political movement started with a strong vision for change but ended up splitting into conflicting factions. The centre-left forces in Italy lost their power when Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition took control by using nationalist rhetoric to capture the populist support which the Left previously harnessed.
Why has this happened? The answer is as much cultural as political. The modern Left has lost its grip on material politics:wages, rents, jobs and replaced it with a moralized, hyper-cultural discourse that resonates mostly with educated urban elites. The Western working class which supported the Left for many years no longer finds their interests represented by the party's current goals. The Economist explained in June 2025 that "the Left focuses on recognition while the Right centers on survival."
Globalisation, too, reshaped the political terrain. The Left once balanced internationalism with protection of domestic industry. The leaders of today seem to back globalization despite many citizens linking it to growing social inequality and rising insecurity. Digital disinformation along with growing political polarization and weakening trade union power have become major challenges.
There is also the question of authenticity. The Right has established itself as the voice of rebellion through populist rhetoric. The Left has turned into defenders of the institutions they once fought against when they tried to change academia and bureaucracy and international organizations. Its leaders speak the language of inclusion but often act with the cold precision of technocrats.
The consequence is a vacuum. Across Europe and North America, voters who once trusted the Left to challenge power now look elsewhere. The drifting population splits into two groups based on their search for safety in established norms and their decision to become disinterested in the world. The Left has lost its moral purpose of empowering the powerless because of political slogans, social media “purity tests” and meaningless online discussions.
The Left in Western societies has faced a gradual disappearance which results from multiple instances of betrayal and strategic retreats and weakened intellectual positions. Its obituary is being written not by its enemies, but by its own exhaustion. The Left needs to find a way to reconnect with material reality through class language rather than clique language or it will become a forgotten movement that failed to die fighting but instead faded away quietly.
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