Last week’s European election results were bad news for the Left. The European Union has been hit hard by its economic and political crises of recent years, and the main pro-system parties took another knock in last week’s elections. Yet the winners were not the left-wing opponents of neoliberalism. Lacking a clear plan to change the EU, they instead floundered while the far right again made gains.

But the Left’s weaknesses don’t just owe to tactical choices. The election results, with the decline of both social democracy and more radical forces, express a long-term weakening of party organization. If during the European debt crisis we have seen sporadic outbursts of anti-austerity mobilizations, as well as new electoral alternatives expressing something of the same spirit, these have not made up for the longer-term pattern of decline.

For Italian political scientist Marco Revelli, the “revolt of the poor” is making less impact on the political map than the revolt of those who had something more to lose: those whose income, status, or national pride are coming under threat. In his analysis, once-conformist voters who underpinned the pro-system parties are radicalizing in favor of right-wing populist alternatives.