Social Democratic Party Responses to Migration and Solidarity in Europe A Comparative Study of Sweden and Greece

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how European social democratic parties respond to thepoliticisation of migration and solidarity amid the rise of populist radical right (PRR)competitors. Using a comparative case study of Sweden and Greece, it investigates why somesocial democrats have partially absorbed PRR frames while others have failed to translateadaptation into electoral resilience. The study integrates party competition theory, welfare statetransformation scholarship, and debates on European solidarity in crisis.Methodologically, it employs a qualitative comparative design (Przeworski & Teune,1970; Yin, 2014), combining content analysis of manifestos, speeches, and policy documentswith secondary data on elections and public opinion. Sweden represents a universalist welfareregime anchored by the long-dominant Social Democratic Party (SAP); Greece illustrates acrisis-battered Southern model, shaped by PASOK’s collapse, SYRIZA’s rise, and fragile proEuropeanism.Findings show that institutional path dependency conditions PRR contagion (Bale etal., 2010; Van Spanje, 2010). The SAP moved from humanitarian exceptionalism to progressiverestriction, reframing migration control as compatible with solidarity and preserving governingrelevance. In Greece, austerity, organisational decline, and weak EU trust undermined socialdemocratic adaptation: SYRIZA’s humanitarianism collapsed under EU–Turkey constraints,and KINAL/PASOK’s rebranding failed to regain issue ownership.The thesis argues that contagion is necessary but insufficient; social democracy enduresonly where credible welfare capacity, organisational resilience, and trusted European framespersist.