CVCE
Château de Sanem
L-4992 Sanem
tél +352 59 59 20 1
fax +352 59 59 20 555
cvce@cvce.lu
www.cvce.lu
|
| Title |
The Socialists
|
| Document type |
Synopsis
|
| Source |
European NAvigator. Etienne Deschamps. Translated by the CVCE.
|
| Keywords |
SED, Socialist Party
|
| Copyright |
© Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe (CVCE).
All rights of reproduction, of public communication, of adaptation, of distribution or of dissemination via Internet, internal network or any other means are strictly reserved in all countries.
Consult the legal notice and the terms and conditions of use regarding this site.
|
| Caption |
|
| Location in the digital library |
HISTORICAL EVENTS >> 1945–1949 The pioneering phase >> Europe in ruins in the aftermath of the Second World War >> The political consequences >> The Socialists
|
| Document extract |
The Socialists
In general terms, the Socialists emerged from the Second World War in a stronger position than before. Many of them had denounced the rise of Fascism before the war and large numbers of them had joined the ranks of the resistance. In Northern Europe, the social-democratic or workers’ parties played a dominant political role. Immediately after the war, they occupied important government positions and maintained close links with the labour unions. They developed the concept of the Welfare State, which the British Government attempted to implement from 1945. In Western and Southern Europe, particularly Italy and France, the Socialist Parties nevertheless had to face up to serious competition from the Left in the form of the Communist Parties. The Cold War continued to fuel the struggle for influence between the two workers’ parties. The Socialists actually had great difficulty, in the face of continuous attacks by the Communists, in defending the austerity policy required by post-war economic constraints. In Germany, in the Soviet zone of occupation, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) merged with the Communist Party (KPD) on 22 April 1946 to form the Socialist Unity Party (SED), whereas the SPD in the Western zones of occupation had refused any merger with the KPD. In most of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe under S (...) Read more in ENA |
| See also |
Egon Krenz
Political statement from the Socialist parties of the European Community (Brussels, 24 June 1978)
Manifesto by the National Executive Committee of the British Labour Party on European unity (May 1950)
Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl found the SED (Berlin, 21 and 22 April 1946)
Cartoon by Behrendt on the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (1989)
Cartoon by Million on the French Socialist Party and the referendum on the European Constitution (24 November 2004)
The establishment of the German Socialist Unity Party (Berlin, 21 April 1946)
Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Berlin, 22 April 1946)
Mário Soares at a demonstration against the single trade union system (Lisbon, 21 January 1975)
Cartoon by Hanel on the collapse of the Communist regime in the GDR (1989)
|
|
