When considering the current state of affairs around the world, one sentence constantly reverberates in my head: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. A law of motion, this is becoming increasingly evident in politics as well, especially regarding populism and the modern far-right surge.
The political sphere of the West is undergoing a prolonged period of evolution that is melting away traditions. Attempts across the West to harmonize socialism with rising populist ideologies are often ignored. As a consequence, new, patriotic left-wing movements may forego internationalism as a leftist virtue as they evolve into organizations prioritizing their own homelands. In major countries such as France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany, the conventional balance of power between center-left and center-right parties is increasingly challenged by popular, unorthodox movements.
Germany is seeing a consistent rise in the popularity of Alternative for Germany. In France, Marine Le Pen defies predictions of her demise by adamantly pursuing new elections. Reform UK has grown substantially in Britain and the United States has witnessed the return of President Donald Trump. These are all examples of right-wing populist success or near success through strategic and targeted media campaigns that captivate the disgruntled electorate.
Populist rhetoric is dominated by the far right, while there are almost no parties on the left that have ascended to the mainstream in the same way parties from the right have. Evidently, the imbalance in the scale of activism between ideological halves is becoming apparent, leaving the center left in the West in a dire position.
Therein lies the predictable next step. Where the conventional center left has failed, bold, populist-based party policies that challenge economic oligarchy and corruption at all government levels will rise to fill the vacuum, according to an article by The New Statesman [HYPERLINK: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/greens/2025/08/its-time-for-left-populism].
These current political circumstances are a breeding ground for a new populist-leftist experiment.
In the same Western nations where right-wing populists achieve electoral gains, voters disillusioned with the political center are forming left-wing parties that embrace patriotism. France’s National Rally party is countered by the bloc La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, while the AfD in Germany is countered by the rise in popularity of Die Linke, or The Left, and BSW, or the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance.
These left-wing populist movements’ opposition to liberal policies of free trade and common currency puts them in a position where they are more nationalist than socialist and more populist than leftist. Many of these political parties share traits with right-wing movements, like insistence on broad welfare policies, toughness on crime, stricter immigration and leaving international commitments, particularly the European Union. Whether this is a futile betrayal of the left’s core values for publicity or a new strategy for electoral success is up to how skillfully these movements can reach their respective electorate on public concerns.
The primary hurdle this leftist experiment faces is that it is a theory without form. Leftists who seek to harmonize socialism with populism are experiencing a kind of morphogenesis — the creation of new formations or structures, both in biology and social science. They are trying to create their place among the center left that believes in reform, hardliners who push for revolution and an emboldened right that dominates the patriotic rhetoric.
If left-populists wish to achieve this metamorphosis by reaching the mainstream and replacing the existing center left, accomplishing such a political revolution demands an agenda that prioritizes their home countries.
In either case, leftist parties and fronts are forming to counter right-wing populism, not with internationalism, but with their own ideological “twist” on populism. However, the question about the future of populism for the Western left is, for now, without an answer. The results of these experiments that strive to fuse the policies of socialism with the tactics of the right will only reveal themselves during election cycles, which means we must patiently observe the next decade of European politics.
Win or lose, the new stream of left populists in Europe can forever change our understanding of ideologies. In the same way that right-wing populism revealed the disillusionment with the center right, left populists can potentially achieve this by overtaking the center left, leading political discourse in the West to be dominated by radical, bold and uncompromising politicians.
So far, we have only heard occasional footsteps echoing around us, the same ones the political landscape has heard for years. However, history proves that social and economic instability often breeds the most unconventional political developments. The right circumstances might, and very likely will, trigger a silent revolution that will forever redefine the meaning of “being on the left” in the West.
Deniz Gulay is a junior double-majoring in history and Russian.
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