The European Parliament’s Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group is considering rebranding itself ahead of the 2024 European elections, changing its name back to its former Party of European Socialists (PES) in order to “enhance our visibility as a political family,” a letter sent to members by S&D President Iratxe García Pérez reads.
As also explained in the letter, the rebranding would only reinstate the group’s previous name from the 1993-2009 period. The primary reason the European Socialists became the S&D in 2009 was to accommodate Italy’s Democratic Party (PD), but now, with the radical socialist Elly Schlein in charge of the Italian left, the PD no longer insists on presenting as ‘democrats’ in Brussels either.
Furthermore, even if the EP group did go under the ‘social democrat’ branding for 14 years, the party alliance constituting the core of the group maintained the PES name all along. Therefore, García argued in the letter, it would make sense for the EP group to bear the same name and logo, with only the “PES Party” and “PES Group” phrasings distinguishing the two entities.
However, there could be another, less advertised reason for the change as well. According to an unnamed official close to the S&D leadership (and who probably leaked the letter to Politico), García wants to avoid using a name that could invoke any resemblance to the conservative Sweden Democrats, who are often portrayed by the left as ‘far-right,’ even after their spectacular election victory last year.
In any case, García’s letter calls for all S&D members to indicate whether they would support the name change before May 12th, so that the party could “better assess the direction the majority would lean toward.”
According to García’s proposed timetable, if most S&D members subscribe to the rebranding, the party could begin its campaign as the PES Group starting in September.
