Does the radical left stand up for liberal democracy in the European parliament? Evidence from 53 debates on the rule of law crisis

Abstract While the radical left has strong connections to the tradition of liberal democracy, it also has associations with authoritarian forms of rule and a tolerance of illiberal transgressions when perpetrated by sister parties. Through an exploration of 53 European Parliamentary debates from 2011 to 2022, this paper illuminates a hitherto neglected part of the Rule of Law Crisis, namely the extent to which radical left parties defend liberal democracy in the EU. We find that these parties, through the GUE/NGL group in the Parliament, tread a fine line between defending EU intervention in cases of democratic backsliding internal to member states, while retaining a critical outlook on the EU’s own democratic deficits. Our paper shows that the radical left develops a set of arguments that are sharply distinct not only from those of social-democratic parties, but also from radical right MEPs, suggesting that on this issue area at least, the latter two party families do not converge, contrary to what the “horseshoe” model of political ideology would suggest.