Why Fuel Taxes Are Dangerous for Social Democratic Parties

• In Event: Political Preferences and Divides

Abstract

Facing a historic energy and cost of living crisis, governments across Europe have cut down VAT tax on fuel and are capping energy household bills. Many argue that this is not the best way of helping the most vulnerable households and will cost government budgets dearly. Yet, there is another interpretation of these political choices. Political leaders across Europe are fearful of citizens’ anger not only due to the high cost of living but also and critically due to the rise in energy prices that directly threaten their ability to heat their homes and commute to work. In this paper I argue that this backlash against fuel tax is the result of decades-long, opportunistic and technocratic fuel tax policies adopted by political parties across the left-right ideological divide and one that is bound to further divide political parties, especially of the center-left. Energy taxes are particularly divisive for social democratic parties, across West Europe, because they affect disproportionately working and middle class voters compared to sociocultural professionals, adding a new division, on top of the cosmopolitan/immigration divide, in this century-long electoral coalition on top. This can seriously threaten social democratic parties that have relied on sociocultural professionals’ pro-redistributive preferences to forge the coalition with the working class. We highlight this divisions both using European Social Value survey data and parliamentary speeches in the UK.

Author

• Despina Alexiadou, University of Strathclyde