Tony Blair, one of Europe’s social democratic leaders in his decade as British Prime Minister (1997-2007), argued that the left should “understand that times have changed”, moderating his discourse to be closer to the center and focusing his message on the technological revolution.

“Political strategy must start by accepting reality. And this is a challenge for progressive, socialist and social-democratic parties across Europe”, who are in a “crisis” with exceptions such as Spain or Portugal, he assured in an interview with EFE and three other European agencies (DPA, AFP and ANSA).

Blair described the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, as a “very intelligent and capable politician”, although, asked whether Labor should seek Scottish nationalist support in Parliament if they needed it, as the PSOE has done in Spain, he considered that their leader, Keir Starmer, gotta stop it.

“There is a fundamental difference (…). With the new Labor leader (Starmer), the party has turned to the centre. And I think that would go against its strategy of forming any sort of alliance with the Scottish nationalists,” he explained.

For Blair, who was one of the banners of the so-called “third way” and the father of New Labor at the turn of the century, the political debate has changed in such a way that the left should too.

“The New Labor articulates what I think is increasingly clear in the 21st century: the problem today is not a struggle over values, in the sense that most of society accepts that the state is needed to help people when you need it (…) and that You need a strong private sector. The main issue of the economy is everything that surrounds the technological revolution,” he said.

These innovations “change everything”, so the challenge is how to adapt community organizations to the new realities, how to move from health care to disease prevention.

“The mission of progressive politicians is to own that revolution. If you don’t, one of two things will happen: do you end up arguing taxes and spending, so that in the end it looks like you always want more taxes and more spending, and that’s problematic electoral. , (…) or you use identity politics and culture wars, so you end up on the immigration side, which is fine, but it’s going to be a problem,” he muses.

So, he added, if you want to overcome the problem of injustice and social inequality, the left must change the way the state works, through this technological revolution.

Otherwise, he predicts that centrist forces will divide progressive votes, as in the case of the Greens in Germany or as did Emmanuel Macron in France, “not because values ​​have changed, but because the world has changed.”

Populism also threatens the left from many sides, but for Blair the best way to counter it is to try to stem the discontent that fuels it.

How is it achieved? According to him, with a clear immigration position, with citizens’ insecurity policies that make the most disadvantaged sectors feel protected or with running public services.

“Reasonable complaints must be responded to to narrow the space (for populists). And, to be honest, that’s how we won elections,” he concluded.