Social democracy with(out) people. Possible strategies for survival and expansion of the Polish left

FEPS, together with FES Warsaw, is proud to present the outcomes of an ambitious and multilayered project launched in 2022 and focused on the developmental trajectory of the centre-left in Poland. The core objective of this exceptional initiative has been to examine how social democracy could expand its electoral appeal and regain a stronghold position in what has been flattened to a duopoly-plus type of partisan system. It was designed to enable a broader exchange among politicians and intellectuals and develop materials to help improve the centre-left capacity to engage new sympathisers and potential supporters. 

Consequently, the project was conducted in 3 phases. The first two were devoted to the analytical efforts and featured the surveys and the focus groups organised by IBRiS. Their outcomes provided a unique set of original data, enabling us to see why respective citizens’groups detached and distanced themselves from the left – in its diverse organisational formats since 2005. The raw material and their analyses provide an impressively rich analytical material, which is depicted both in the presentations by IBRiS and also in two reports by Dr Bartosz Rydlinski, keeps being a mine of instructive insights into the reasons for the decline and potential openings to bounce back. It is the first systematically organised collection of that type that is available in English, which may then also equip politicians and scholars from outside of Poland with knowledge and background to compare how far diverse phenomena are part of Polish exceptionalism and how far they replicate processes that have also been occurring within the other party-political systems. For that reason, the reports were also discussed not only at seminars with students and academics of Warsaw University, Wroclaw University and University of Torun but also during a special online session with the progressive think tanks from the V4 countries.

The third and final stage began with the completion of the last survey and drafting of the last paper “Social Democracy With(out) People. Possible strategies for survival and Expansion of the Polish Left”, which was written jointly by Prof. Gavin Rae and Dr Maria Skora is a very diligent illustration of how centre-left lost the power, had been sent out of the parliament and managed to return, becoming the junior partner within the new coalition (of 15 October 2023). The exceptional feature of this paper is that it allows us to see the party across diverse legislative periods both through the perspective of how it has been understanding its mission and goals and also through the political context within which it has been active. The data allow us to formulate conclusions regarding the behaviour of the Polish electorate and, in particular, the centre-left-leaning citizens, with attention to the specific tendencies within respective socio-demographic segments of the population. The paper finishes with a great cliffhanger, namely four scenarios that the authors extracted to show what type of strategic choices “Nowa Lewica” in particular will be facing and what the consequences of peaking one path forward instead of the other may be.

But this third phase is not only the paper but also 8 training sessions – which are skillfully designed in cooperation with Michal Syska and Rajmund Nidzinski of Centrum im. MysliSpolecznej Ferdynanda Lasalle to discuss the project’s findings and see how they can become an inspiration and a compass for the new generation of progressives in Poland. 

In order to ensure the maximum possible outreach, the trainings are held in 8 cities across the country– offering easy access and providing a broad platform for a debate on the future of social democracy. The sessions take a day, and the agendas are replicated to ensure maximum consistency and allow writing a manual for this type of training – which soon will also be available in the FEPS Training Programme Toolbox. 

An interesting and important aspect of the inaugural session was that it took place in parallel to the meeting of the Young European Socialists in Warsaw. Dr Ania Skrzypek, FEPS Director for Research and Training, together with Dr Max Brändle, Director of the FES Warsaw, attended the event to exchange with the participants of both events.

For more information, please contact Ms Céline Guedes, the FEPS Project Officer in charge of this project. (celine.guedes@feps-europe.eu) 

And if you wish to check our training, the full list of the upcoming ones (and the past ones,too) is as follows:

1. Warsaw: 29 September (Facebook post)
2. Cracow: 13 October (Facebook post)
3. Gdańsk: 9 November
4. Dąbrowa Górnicza: 16 November
5. Łódź: 22 November
6. Włocławek: 23 November
7. Wrocław: 7 December
8. Białystok: 13 December