In recent years Europe has experienced an unexpected rise in the power and influence of the far-right. At the same time, some of the traditionally most important left-wing parties experienced their demise, after decades in which they played a key role in the political life of its countries. Aim of this publication is to shed a light on the interconnectedness of these two processes. It has been published with the support of transform! europe, and it brings together different essays and articles previously published by regional portal Bilten.org supported by Belgrade office of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. These texts offer a unique and valuable overview of «The New Right and the Old Left in South-East Europe.» Although written in specific contexts during the last four years, these articles provide a deeper, analytic understanding of broader political developments, so none of them lost its relevance.

After social democratic parties across Europe abandoned their working class mass base and accepted majority of centrist socioeconomic policies, they gradually started to lose foothold among popular classes. The long-term weakening of traditional left parties was precisely one of the sources of strength of the new right-wing forces. The economic crisis that broke out in 2008 only further accentuated this processes. Lack of credible political alternative from the Left, which marked the crisis period, left opened space for extreme right to present itself as the true defender of disadvantaged parts of the population. The steady rise in electoral support for extreme right parties showed that Left has to find new ways for mobilizing popular support, beyond a third-way consensus that in the end destroyed much of the traditional social democracy. Therefore, the success of the struggle against extreme right will mostly depend on the ability of the Left to renew itself on the new ideological and political grounds.

Our first thematic bloc deals with social-democratic parties in South-East Europe. Those parties were established across the region after the break-up of socialist regimes. Political and electoral trajectories of these parties are very indicative of broader economic, social and political changes we have witnessed in the last decade or two in the region. But it is important to notice differences, not only in trajectories but also in ideological content and class backgrounds of these parties. While some of them share political profiles and destinies of social-democratic parties across Western Europe, some of them were primarily influenced by local political context and framework. Our aim with this dossier on social democracy is to provide a more nuanced picture of political capacities and limits of social-democratic parties in the region.

Also, this region has not been an exception regarding the rise of the far-right. At the same time, it would be an oversimplification to consider the far-right in the Balkans as just a provincial manifestation of the same phenomenon in the West. It has its own history, set of goals and modi operandi that show some similarities but also significant differences between various countries. Defending democracy in South-East Europe requires a better understanding of the concrete conditions in which far-right movements develop as well as a closer analysis of the implementations of their various techniques. We believe that our dossier on far-right in the Balkans can significantly contribute to the education of local activists and researchers in the region and further.