All over Europe, social democratic parties are on the ropes, shedding votes to populists on the left and right. Even the mightiest of them, Germany's SPD, governs as a junior partner in a coalition, notching up barely more than a quarter of the vote. The death notices of social democracy are being written again, just as they were in 1980s when the industrial working class started to head east, taking with it the political ballast of the Labour movement.
But social democracy is a pragmatic tradition that has proved itself capable of renewal throughout its history. Faced with a choice between defence of the status quo and political change to equip it for new times, it has eventually chosen the path of reform. Today it is called upon to do the same again.
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