The “Euroleft” was mentioned on pen-l a while ago. I explored the Euroleft
website and some other information and found the following:


POSITION

The “Euroleft” is a “network” (their term) of political parties from
numerous, but not all, European countries. The network has 39 elected
members in the European parliament (election of June 2004). The network had
its first congress in Athens, Greece in 2005. Its ideological position is
explicitly (a) against neo-liberal and neo-conservative capitalism, (b)
against social democracy and “Third Way” politics, (c) for support of
Venezuela’s “Bolivarian revolution” under Hugo Chavez, (d) against the U.S.
embargo of Castro’s Cuba, (e) for economic democracy (radical democracy),
(f) for eradication of unemployment, (g) for peace, (h) other. Implicitly,
the network appears to distance itself from Stalinist-type communism. The
network might be called “post-communist”, but it does not describe itself
that way. Whether the description “democratic socialist” is appropriate, is
a bit ambiguous. On the one hand, the network includes parties that describe
themselves as “democratic socialist”; on the other hand, the network
describes itself as “non-Socialist left.” The network also includes some
“Greens.”

Capsule statement: “Europe needs to be re-established on a foundation of
peace, democracy and full respect for social and human rights.”


STRENGTH

The member parties of the network have the support of about 3 to 4 (three to
four) percent, on average, in their respective national elections, as
follows (information as of December 2005):

(A) Parties where an election result is available for the party
[format = COUNTRY, PARTY NAME, PERCENT support received by the party in the
latest national election, YEAR of latest national election]

France, French Communist Party, 4.8, 2002
Germany, Left Party.PDS, 8.7, 2005
Greece, Coalition of Left, of Movements and Ecology, 3.3, 2004
Italy, Communist Refoundation Party, 5.0, 2001
Luxemburg, The Left Luxemburg, 1.9, 2004
Portugal, Leftwing Bloc, 6.4, 2005
San Marino, Communist Refoundation, 3.4, 2001
Spain, United Left, 5.0, 2004
Switzerland, Labour Party of Switzerland, 0.7, 2003

Average of above = 39.2 / 9= 4.4 percent


(B) Parties where an election result for the party is not listed separately,
but is included in the category “other parties”
[format = COUNTRY, PARTY NAME, PERCENT popular support received by “other
parties”, including the named party, in the latest national election, YEAR
of latest national election]

Austria, Communist Party of Austria, 1.7, 2002
Czech Republic, Party of Democratic Socialism, 12.5, 2002
Estonia, Estonian Left Party (EVP), 2.8, 2003
Hungary, Labour Party, 6.2, 2002
Romania, Socialist Alliance Party, 11.1, 2004
Spain, Communist Party of Spain, 4.9, 2004
Spain, United Alternative Left of Catalonia, 4.9, 2004

Average of “other parties” above = 44.7 / 7 = 6.4 percent
Estimating the strength of member parties as ½ of “other parties” above =
0.5* 44.1 / 7 = 3.2 percent

(C) Parties that are not “members”, but have “observer status” in the
“Euroleft” network
[format = COUNTRY, PARTY NAME]

Cyprus, Progressive Party of The Working People of Cyprus
Czech Republic, Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
Denmark, Red Green Alliance
Finland, Communist Party of Finland
Germany, German Communist Party
Italy, Party of Italian Communists
Slovakia, Communist Party of Slovakia
Turkey, Freedom and Solidarity Party

Regards,
GK

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