The Scandinavian Left

Abstract

Left parties in Scandinavia mostly originated in orthodox communist parties, but began their transition to new left positions as long ago as 30 years before 1989 — some decades before equivalent changes in their sister parties in Western Europe. They embraced more radical left and social movement politics — particularly feminism and environmentalism. Not surprisingly therefore, the Scandinavian left was less affected by the collapse of communism in 1989 than those still primarily identifying as communist and with strong links to the CPSU. The catalyst which put these parties back into a more militant anti-capitalist framework and back into cooperation with parties they had previously intended to dissociate from was the Maastricht Treaty. As Scandinavian social democracy moved to the right and began to implement cuts in the highly advanced welfare systems of these countries, the left parties moved to occupy the vacated political space, clarified their position on the left and were able to increase their electoral standing on this basis. These left parties have a small but stable social base in Scandinavia, and since the early 1990s — particularly motivated around opposition to the Maastricht Treaty — they have cooperated with the new European left parties, notably within the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament (since 1995).