Possibilities and Limits of Southern European Socialism in the Iberian Peninsula: French, Portuguese and Spanish Socialists in the mid-1970s

Abstract

This article discusses the relations between the French, Portuguese and Spanish socialist parties during the transitions to democracy in the Iberian Peninsula (1974)(1975)(1976)(1977). It focuses on the attempt of these parties to establish a distinctive ideological trend, Southern European Socialism. The main argument is that the French socialists attempted to promote their ideological line-and predominantly the union between socialists and communists-in the Iberian Peninsula during the transitions to democracy. The Portuguese PS and the Spanish PSOE initially considered following this line. However, the radicalisation of the Portuguese Revolution in the sensitive context of Cold War détente, as well as the involvement of the European social democrats in both Portugal and Spain against the union of the left, prevented this model from being further considered by the PS and the PSOE. Nevertheless, all these parties showed interest in promoting a common Southern European Socialist identity that differed from European social democracy as well as from Soviet communism, considering it useful in the struggle for hegemony within the left.The aim of this article is to analyse the relations between the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste: PSF) and its Iberian counterparts the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español: PSOE) and the Portuguese Socialist Party (Partido Socialista: PS) in the mid-1970s, when both Spain and Portugal shifted from dictatorships to democracies. Focusing on the Portuguese Revolution and the Spanish transition, this article will examine the emergence and partial decline of the idea of Southern European Socialism, i and the ideological and political relevance that this trend, promoted by the PSF, had for all of these parties. The analysis here is based on documents held at the historical archive of the PSF, ii complemented by documents placed in the historical archives of the PSOE, iii documents available online from the Mário Soares Foundation and published sources.In the last two decades scholars of the Spanish and Portuguese transitions to democracy have paid particular attention to international factors. They have highlighted the role of the European social democrat governments and parties in promoting democracy in the Iberian Peninsula. iv Following this trend, historians working on Iberian socialism have considered international factors in order to explain how the PS and PSOE could play such a prominent role during the changes of regime in Portugal and Spain. v They have demonstrated the particular significance of the involvement of This is the accepted manuscript of the article, which has been published in Contemporary European History. 2019, 28(3), 390-408. https://doi.

The Making and Circulation of Nordic Models, Ideas and Images

“…7 At that time, the main international partner of PSOE was the PSF, which also experienced a leftwards shift at the beginning of the 1970s. The PSF tried to promote a trend called southern European socialism in the Iberian Peninsula, based on the ideas of building socialism in democracy, the implementation of self-management (autogestion) in every field of social life, and the programmatic union between socialists and communists (Granadino, 2019).…”