Each day brings new proof that the old order is crumbling: sometimes a further violation of the international rules and norms that have governed the globalized world for half a century, sometimes an advance in artificial intelligence with no regard for citizens’ safety. Life in the mid-2020s feels like an accelerated collapse. In English, we would say that we are walking on black ice : that invisible ice that forms on the roads, snatches your feet without warning, and against which brakes are useless.
We are experiencing one of the great transformations of our societies, and the left, for the most part, has missed the boat. Incapable of seizing the pivotal moment to steer the change toward a fairer, more humane, and more sustainable order, it watches as the right holds sway on both sides of the Atlantic, despite a few notable electoral victories for the center-left. These victories are often narrow, snatched with meager votes or built on makeshift coalitions, governing against the tide while absorbing the domestic repercussions of global shocks. Every conquest for the center-left matters: it brings to power a government committed to fairness and progress, hostile to the extremism of national populists. The strengthened coordination between center-left parties worldwide is indeed producing tangible electoral results. But these victories often remain marginal, based too much on mobilization against the adversary rather than for a shared vision, which fails to generate lasting support. Beyond tactical successes, the center-left lacks a program capable of defeating nationalist populists for good. It is in this void that the politics of the “third left” can emerge: finally defining what the center-left is and for whom it fights, rather than defining itself by what it doesn’t.
The emerging post-identity “third left” is resolutely turning the page on the identity politics that has plagued a segment of the left and which the right now exploits to sow social and cultural discord. As Renaud Large explains in a collective report , this identity politics failed to provide the left with the intellectual framework necessary to adapt to the major transformations of the world; it distanced it from the class politics that fueled collective movements for greater equality. Blind to class, identity politics failed to forge the solidarity necessary for winning coalitions; it even severed ties with working-class communities, which are essential for any lasting electoral base. Advances in the rights of women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ people would never have occurred if the debate had remained confined to university campuses. Seeking common interests at the intersection of class and identity remains today a sine qua non condition for greater social equality and the re-establishment of the left as a decisive political force.
