Adopting rightwing policies on issues such as immigration and the economy does not help centre-left parties win votes, according to new analysis of European electoral and polling data.
Faced with a 20-year decline in their vote share, accompanied by rising support for the right, far right and sometimes the far left, social democratic parties across Europe have increasingly sought salvation by moving towards the political centre.
This argument always makes me laugh. It’s not that they think that they’ll get more votes with it. It’s that the option of “do what leftists want” makes them lose all their donations/bribes/support from the ruling elites. So their only option is to appeal to the more right wing of their base.
Yep, it’s pretty obvious that if a voter bought into the anti immigration stuff, or whatever other culture war bullshit the right is peddling, they’re going to vote for the real thing, not some halfway measures from Labor/the socialist party.