Social Europe can defeat the rhetoric of the far right

Why is the far right on the rise in Europe? An article by the American economist Dani Rodrik provides a summary of the socio-economic literature on this subject. According to the author, globalisation, along with free trade, the liberalisation of capital, and automation, plays a key role in this process, given how it has led to a high level of economic insecurity for certain populations. 

De-industrialisation, outsourcing, and the distortion of the capital-labour divide have all worked to the detriment of many workers. Logically, this situation should have benefited the left, but far-right political leaders have managed to turn it to their advantage by mobilising the ethnonational and cultural divide, in other words by constructing a narrative in which foreigners or minorities are the real culprits. 

The European migration crisis of 2015 made such discourse more plausible, and it invaded the public space in many European countries. Rodrik's conclusion is that the great challenge facing policymakers today is to break with a globalisation designed around the needs of capital, in order to achieve a rebalancing in favour of labour. 

France does not seem to have chosen this path. Quite the contrary, in fact. While nothing is being done to improve very poor working conditions, and everything is converging on increased suspicion of social welfare recipients and jobseekers, the debate on immigration saturates the public arena to the delight of far-right leaders.

It is the European Commission and Parliament that seem to be initiating a social turnaround, but this is being held back by the Member States, first and foremost France. A number of directives offer real progress for workers. On 11 March 2024, the EU employment ministers finally approved an agreement on the draft directive on platform work.

The text sets out the criteria for distinguishing between genuine self-employed workers and those who should be recognised as employees (around 5.5 million people according to the Commission). This should make it possible to put an end to the social dumping practised by the many platforms, which evade labour laws, and cause the [French] social security system to lose hundreds of millions of euros in contributions. France voted against, and Germany abstained.  

On 24 April, the European Parliament approved the new corporate sustainability due diligence directive. This new set of rules requires companies to respect human rights and the environment throughout their supply chains. In 2015, in their book Prendre la responsabilité au sérieux (PUF), legal experts Alain Supiot and Mireille Delmas-Marty denounced the way in which the free movement of capital and goods has enabled transnational companies to emancipate themselves from the social and environmental responsibilities that previously impeded them through national laws.

“National laws have thus become competitors in a vast market of rights. They are participating in a race to the bottom in terms of social and environmental standards", the authors wrote. This encourages the phenomenon known as ‘forum shopping’, which leads transnational companies to choose the countries with the least restrictive legislation. The directive excludes the financial sector from its scope, again with the support of France. 

On 16 December, the final text of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, as was the regulation on artificial intelligence adopted by the Parliament and the Council on 8 December, which includes a number of provisions to help improve working conditions.

One final step forward is worth mentioning. Admittedly, this is only a non-binding resolution by the European Parliament, but it does point in an innovative direction. On 23 November 2023, MEPs adopted a resolution on job creation, just transition and impact investments. The text calls on the EU to roll out an ambitious industrial policy, to support the reindustrialisation of regions, and to invest in an ecological transition that will create quality jobs: “1,4 million additional low- and medium-skilled jobs, as well as 450 000 high-skilled jobs, will be created as a result of increased investments in building renovation and reduced energy consumption of fossil fuels for heating”.  

The resolution invites the Commission to propose a European framework on maximum working temperatures, calls for the adoption of fair transition plans, which should be negotiated by social partners at the sectoral and company level, and calls for a clear and harmonised framework on impact investment, to assess the way in which companies manage their social responsibilities. 

Confirming the European Union's social turn - and therefore electing en masse those who are committed to promoting it - is undoubtedly the best way of making the rhetoric of the far right less attractive. 

This article, which was published in Le Monde on 30 December, has been updated.