High Time for the Left to Rally
People aspire to democracy. Regardless of the level of respect they have for fundamental rights and freedoms, all regimes, including dictatorships claim to be democratic as this remains the ultimate source of legitimacy. People also aspire to economic development, higher standards of living, and a fair distribution of income.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was celebrated in the West not only because it represented the defeat of communist ideology but also a dramatic weakening of the West’s strategic enemy.
In retrospect, however, one may say that there was also a downside to it. Despite its failures, communist ideology’s public discourse on social justice, and equitable income distribution had a sobering effect on the West’s socioeconomic policies. With that gone, the capitalist system started to display its excesses. The European center-left lost ground. The middle class started thinning out. Over the past 35 years, the wealthiest 1% of Americans significantly increased their share of the country’s total wealth.[i]
The 2007–08 economic crisis, the impact of globalization, cozy relations between big business and politics, and dwindling incomes led to a widening fault line between groups considered “the governing elites” and the majority.
Long before, but especially after the collapse of communism, the free-market economy had become the twin sister of democracy. Thus, with the failures of the free market in the West, the link between economic need and support for democracy started to erode. The far-right re-emerged in Europe.
“In the 1990s, the far right began making its presence felt in a handful of European elections…
“But as the 2010s wore on, it became clear that something new was happening on the right across advanced democracies. The reactionary right had risen to power in the United States, Hungary, Israel, India, Brazil, and Poland. Extreme-right Western European parties — some of which, like Germany’s AfD, had a tenuous relationship at best with democracy — enjoyed an unprecedented wave of electoral success, winning larger seat shares in Parliaments and joining governing coalitions in larger numbers.
“Every one of these new authoritarian movements presented itself as deeply and authentically democratic. While the parties openly attacked democracy-adjacent values — like liberalism, multiculturalism, or secularism — they all insisted that they supported the basic ideas of popular sovereignty and elections.”[ii]
Migration has also contributed to the surge in Europe as lower-income groups became increasingly upset not only with refugees from the broad Middle East and Africa but also with Ukrainians seeking security in NATO countries.
From 1949 to the present, four of the Federal Republic of Germany’s nine chancellors were from the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Today, the AfD is Germany’s second-largest party, while the SPD is the third.
On his last foreign trip as President, Mr. Obama visited Greece in November 2016. The following passage from a speech he delivered in Athens was a warning:
“… And when we see people — global elites, wealthy corporations — seemingly living by a different set of rules, avoiding taxes, manipulating loopholes — when the rich and the powerful appear to game the system and accumulate vast wealth while middle and working-class families struggle to make ends meet, this feeds a profound sense of injustice and a feeling that our economies are increasingly unfair.
“This inequality now constitutes one of the greatest challenges to our economies and to our democracies…”
Today, Mr. Trump is back at the White House, musing about a third term. The rise of the far-right has become a challenge for the West. Because the “profound sense of injustice” President Obama referred to has forced the middle and working classes to balance their commitment to democracy against better standards of living. In other words, the latter has increasingly become their priority and the far-right parties have taken advantage of their frustration.
The global turbulence triggered by Trump’s tariffs is likely to create more opportunities for the far right. Last week, he claimed foreign leaders were “kissing my ass” to make trade deals insulting all those seeking to avoid a trade war. Mr. Trump’s principal target is China. However, President Xi, an authoritarian leader, now viewed as more consistent and predictable by a growing group of nations, will not step back. Hopefully, the tensions of the trade war will not escalate into more risky areas.[iii]
It is high time for the leftist and center-left parties to go beyond their customary public discourse, re-energize, and reinvent themselves with gripping programs before the rise of the far-right evolves into something worse. There is a growing awareness in that direction but a lot more needs to be done.[iv]
As for Türkiye, in early February, speaking at Anadolu’s Editors’ Desk in Ankara, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan rejected Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, calling it “unacceptable,” adding that even its consideration is wrong.[v] Last Friday, following a meeting of the Gaza contact group in Antalya he said, “We reject all types of plans that force Palestinians to leave their homeland.” Hopefully, the word “force” does not signal a change to his earlier remarks, a shift toward a “voluntary exodus” scenario.
Today, Türkiye faces a troubling accumulation of domestic, foreign, and security policy challenges. To overcome them we do not have to fight another War of Gallipoli, another War of Independence against the victors of a world war and rebuild everything from scratch. And there is a solution: a swift agreement in parliament on restoring the parliamentary system and the holding of general elections. This is the only solution. This is the dictate of patriotism and commitment to democracy. This is also the dictate of the membership oath taken by every member of the parliament regardless of their party affiliation. This would not resolve our problems immediately. But it would unite us and take us more than halfway toward resolving them.
[i] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-the-1s-share-of-u-s-wealth-over-time-1989-2024/
[ii] https://www.vox.com/politics/361136/far-right-authoritarianism-germany-reactionary-spirit
[iii] https://www.other-news.info/us-china-trade-war-is-on-could-it-turn-violent-and-when/
[iv] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/12/bernie-sanders-rally-los-angeles
[v] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/trumps-gaza-displacement-plan-unacceptable-turkish-foreign-minister/3472512