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Perhaps we've been too quick to declare the death of European social democracy? In four EU states with elections coming up this year - Spain, Finland, Denmark and Portugal - social democrats are posting their best polling numbers since before the financial crisis
Also, in two of these countries (Finland and Denmark), the radical right is currently down sharply in polling, in a third (Portugal) it is still non-existent while in fourth it is set to break through for the first time (Spain)...
Which is worth flagging up for three reasons: 1. Spain continues the general tendency of the radical right family to spread to new countries 2. Denmark and Finland highlight this doesn't mean rad rt are growing where they're already established...
...and 3. When the inevitable breathless/alarmist media reports on Vox's breakthrough arrives, this will misleadingly be presented as part of a trend of relentless populist rise, neglecting (1) and (2), and resurgence of social democrats.
(meanwhile over in Greece, the pet cause of Britain's new radical left - SYRIZA - still look on course for a drubbing at the hands of the centre-right. So much for the revolution, comrades?)
(and even in Italy, where the radical right really have become the mainstream, their radical populist anti-everything coalition partners M5S are in free fall, as voters return to...the centre-left)
