Covid-19 crisis: Implications and lessons for European social democracy

The study ‘Covid-19 crisis: implications and lessons for European social democracy‘ brings together a summary of the outcomes of two-year-long research conducted with the initial support of Instituto Cattaneo in Bologna and then successfully concluded with the invaluable help of Kieskompass in Amsterdam.

The two waves of surveys saw over 6000 people participating in 6 countries: Poland, Sweden, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. The results were then analysed accordingly to the 13 sociodemographic categories and 63 thematic questions.

FEPS, together with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, launched these country-focused publications at this round table event.

The event kicked off with a presentation by André Krouwel and Yordan Kutyisky from Kieskompas, who will highlight the most instructive findings – also looking at how these may serve Progressives when they prepare themselves for a set of national and European elections, respectively.

Among the questions, you could find:

• If there is a return to the debate about the state’s future, how can social democrats claim it this time?
• If the social democratic voters are among the better educated, more well-off ones – how can the progressive parties build credible agendas that could electorally unite the voices of these with those of the other, more precarious groups in the society?
• If, contrary to the media debates, the majority of citizens in the surveyed countries still consider themselves moderates, how can social democrats stand out as a distinctive force among the traditional parties?

This hybrid expert meeting took place at FEPS Headquarters, Avenue des Arts 46, 1000 Brussels.