Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

tablished democracies. What was there to do? We celebrated the
new freedom but had to wait and see what kind of political landscape
would develop. In most countries, parties originating from
the opposition movements took power. The situation on the left was
unclear. We started to identify possible political partners for cooperation.
This was mainly done through our party foundations. But it
soon became obvious to us that the new democracies did not copy
the Western European model, with strong social democratic parties
able to govern. With the exception of the Czech Republic, none of
these parties had really survived communist times.
There was little political space for parties promoting social
democracy. The name turned out to be tainted by the communist
past of Central and Eastern Europe. Radical free market ideologies
added to our woes. Whole segments of the population where underrepresented
at the political level and there existed little sympathy
for the losers of the transition. For that reason we turned our
efforts to the post communist parties, of which most were prepared
to fuse with remaining original – but marginal – social democratic
parties. I was personally involved in a number of these mergers as
Vice President of the Party of the European Socialists. We were
often criticised for involving post communist parties. But not having
done so, we would have probably denied the representation of
new member states in one of the most important and largest European
political family.
In the European Parliament, I was for many years directly involved
in Slovakia‘s accession process to the European Union, as parliamentary
rapporteur. It was an exciting job with a high profile in that
country. Slovakia’s ambition to become member of the EU made it
very sensitive to advice from the side of the European Parliament.
I visited many parts of the country and one could see the changes
taking place. In 1998, the voters ousted the authoritarian Mečiar
government that had developed a bad relationship with the EU; this
opened the road towards negotiations with a new and democratic
administration. Slovakia developed quickly afterwards with high
growth rates and I had no objections to it becoming a member of
the EU in 2004. Although some doubts remain. The governments
that eventually took Slovakia into the EU were of the ultraliberal
type, to the detriment of many ordinary citizens and especially the
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