What is the most left-wing European city?

[parochial boy]

It's been done for the US, so why not Europe? Use whatever definition of left wing (electoral success of left wing parties, social movements, radical urban policy...) and of city that you want. Although potentially not random-andalusian-village-with-50-people-that-voted-95%-Podemos or whatever.

[jaymichaud]

Brighton

[Hnv1]

From what city size?

Leipzig? Bremen, and other German cities have a strong left tradition. Some cities in France are controlled by commies. Liverpool votes labour in Stalinist margins.

[Alcibiades]

Perhaps Liverpool, not only due to its Labour margins, but due to the extent that socialism/anti-Toryism is wrapped up with the city’s identity.

[CumbrianLefty]

It's been done for the US, so why not Europe? Use whatever definition of left wing (electoral success of left wing parties, social movements, radical urban policy...) and of city that you want. Although potentially not random-andalusian-village-with-50-people-that-voted-95%-Podemos or whatever.

What was the consensus there?

[Former President tack50]

It's been done for the US, so why not Europe? Use whatever definition of left wing (electoral success of left wing parties, social movements, radical urban policy...) and of city that you want. Although potentially not random-andalusian-village-with-50-people-that-voted-95%-Podemos or whatever.

Ah I see you are trying to exclude the town of Marinaleda

Population: 2627 people; voted 64% for Podemos and a further 18% for PSOE. (7% for Vox, 6% for PP and 2% for Cs)

As for why, it is basically ran like a communist commune and has been that way since the 1980s.

You can read much more about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/marinaleda-spanish-communist-village-utopia

[Zinneke]

Those Labour margins in Liverpool must be hard to beat...

[Former President tack50]

Now seriously, in terms of large cities, my choice, at least for Spain would probably be Barcelona.

In fact, if you want to be more precise and depending on threshold, you could actually do a bit better picking instead some of the unionist poor "suburbs" of Barcelona like for example L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (population: 265k people). These were former towns that used to be separate of Barcelona, but were absorbed by its population growth, but still count as separate towns.

L'Hospitalet in particular voted 71% for the left in 2019 (compared to Barcelona city's 66%). Although because of Cs dominating the unionist vote in the 2017 Catalan elections it only voted with a mere 51% for the left on those.


I will also note that Marinaleda is not the most left wing municipality in terms of blocks, though it is indeed probably the best Podemos result nationwide. Nearby Martín de la Jara (population: 2700) voted 87% for the left compared to Marinaleda's 83%. However this one was much closer in terms of parties (47% PSOE, 40% UP, 5% Vox, 4% PP, 2% Cs). And I am sure I could probably find better results.

Indeed, you can do even better than that. The town of Orexa (Basque Country), with 121 people, is notorious because, until 2016, no non-Basque Nationalist party had received any votes whatsoever (in 2016 this streak was finally broken when Podemos got 1 vote).

In 2019, this tiny village voted 97% for Bildu, 3% for PNV. Of course because of the tiny population, the result in votes was 73-2. Even elections in Atlas' Fantasyland see much higher turnouts than that

[cp]

I've not been there to confirm, but I gather Bologna has a fairly leftwing reputation.

[Mike88]

In Portugal there is Barreiro and Moita cities, basically twin cities, in the Lisbon Metropolitan area on the south side of the the Tagus. Barreiro has almost 85,000 inhabitants and Moita has almost 70,000. The left, PS+CDU+BE+PAN, polls almost always well above 60% and in some elections reaches almost 80%. The rightwing parties never polled ahead in these two cities. General election results since 1999:

Barreiro

2019: 77.9% Left; 15.0% Right
2015: 75.5% Left; 15.8% Right
2011: 64.3% Left; 28.3% Right
2009: 76.3% Left; 18.1% Right
2005: 81.0% Left; 14.7% Right
2002: 73.5% Left; 23.1% Right
1999: 78.5% Left; 17.6% Right

Moita

2019: 77.6% Left; 14.5% Right
2015: 75.3% Left; 15.1% Right
2011: 62.7% Left; 28.1% Right
2009: 74.8% Left; 18.8% Right
2005: 79.2% Left; 16.0% Right
2002: 73.3% Left; 25.4% Right
1999: 76.8% Left; 18.5% Right

Even in the 1987 and 1991 PSD landslides, the left polled above 60% in both municipalities. Vila Franca de Xira, just north above Lisbon, around 130,000 inhabitants, also has vote shares for the combined left above 60% and most often 70%.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Belgium: Charleroi, Liege, Verviers, Zelzate, Seraing, Herstal and some smaller towns in province of Liege.

Excluding cdH
Liege 2019: 65% left
Seraing 2019: 73.5% left
Herstal 2019: 75.5% left

[thumb21]

Patra in Greece re-elected its Communist mayor last year with over 70% of the vote.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Brighton

Not even among the Top Five (or possibly Ten) Left Wing cities in England. 2/3rds of its MPs were Conservatives as recently as the 2010-2015 parliament.

On reflection, I think Liverpool might be a very good answer to this.

[parochial boy]

It's been done for the US, so why not Europe? Use whatever definition of left wing (electoral success of left wing parties, social movements, radical urban policy...) and of city that you want. Although potentially not random-andalusian-village-with-50-people-that-voted-95%-Podemos or whatever.

What was the consensus there?

None IIRC, but a lot for San Francisco. Which as much as anything else just seems to underpin the idea that "left wing" still means something rather different on that side of the atlantic.


Liverpool was my first thought too - not just the city itself but the way Labour win massive numbers across the whole of Merseyside. Plus making the crass generalisation that the general way that cities developed in the UK compared to much of the rest of the continent probably meant/means they would be naturally better territory for the left than in other countries.

That and German cities seem to be much bigger in relation to their urban areas, so including more suburban areas, which means that even reputably left wing ones like Hamburg or Berlin don't have particularly impressive support for left parties.

[EastAnglianLefty]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

[Skye]

It's been done for the US, so why not Europe? Use whatever definition of left wing (electoral success of left wing parties, social movements, radical urban policy...) and of city that you want. Although potentially not random-andalusian-village-with-50-people-that-voted-95%-Podemos or whatever.

Ah I see you are trying to exclude the town of Marinaleda

Population: 2627 people; voted 64% for Podemos and a further 18% for PSOE. (7% for Vox, 6% for PP and 2% for Cs)

As for why, it is basically ran like a communist commune and has been that way since the 1980s.

You can read much more about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/marinaleda-spanish-communist-village-utopia

Marinaleda was basically the first thing that popped into my mind as soon as OP said it. It might be a little town, but the place is just that notorious.

Of course, if we are talking about cities, in Spain the Barcelona metropolitan area takes the cake. Vigo in Galicia leans strongly to the left for some reason as well.

[Zinneke]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

I mean, the presence alone of Rangers Football Club is a pretty good counter argument to Glasgow being more leftwing than Liverpool...

[EastAnglianLefty]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

I mean, the presence alone of Rangers Football Club is a pretty good counter argument to Glasgow being more leftwing than Liverpool...

The number of hardcore Rangers sectarians who actually live within the boundaries of Glasgow must be pretty tiny. And it's not like Merseyside has a shortage of football teams which map on to traditional confessional divisions.

[Alcibiades]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

I mean, the presence alone of Rangers Football Club is a pretty good counter argument to Glasgow being more leftwing than Liverpool...

The number of hardcore Rangers sectarians who actually live within the boundaries of Glasgow must be pretty tiny. And it's not like Merseyside has a shortage of football teams which map on to traditional confessional divisions.

Really? I remember looking into this once, and different sources said that Everton were Protestant and Liverpool were Protestant and vice-versa. What I took away from it was that, despite having had at one time fairly strong sectarian divisions, this never mapped on to the city’s football clubs.

[CumbrianLefty]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

And the basic pitch of the Nats there is "we are the true heirs of the Red Clydesiders, not those quasi Tories in Scottish Labour" which its safe to say isn't their pitch in Moray or Stirling.

[Tender Branson]

One would think that Vienna (2 million people) votes more leftist than Graz (300k people), but in fact Graz had the bigger extreme left-wing vote in 2019.

Graz had ca. 33% voting Green/Jetzt/KPÖ/Wandel, Vienna only 25%.

In the 2016 Presidential runoff, Graz also outvoted Vienna 67-66 for VdB.

Certain Vienna districts like Vienna-07 voted ca. 83% VdB though.

Graz probably has a stronger far-leftist base than Vienna as a whole (they often vote 20%+ for Communists too), but Vienna is more „leftist“ when you include the SPÖ too.

Plus, there are smaller cities that are even more leftist than Vienna or Graz ...

[Zinneke]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

I mean, the presence alone of Rangers Football Club is a pretty good counter argument to Glasgow being more leftwing than Liverpool...

The number of hardcore Rangers sectarians who actually live within the boundaries of Glasgow must be pretty tiny. And it's not like Merseyside has a shortage of football teams which map on to traditional confessional divisions.

Really? I remember looking into this once, and different sources said that Everton were Protestant and Liverpool were Protestant and vice-versa. What I took away from it was that, despite having had at one time fairly strong sectarian divisions, this never mapped on to the city’s football clubs.

I remember this too...Everton as Catholic, Liverpool as mostly protestant but both now firmly non-sectarian. Rangers and Celtic on the other hand...it's safe to say supporting either club properly is an act of politics in itself. I find it difficult to imagine leftists singing Father's Advice at full pelt...

[Hnv1]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

I mean, the presence alone of Rangers Football Club is a pretty good counter argument to Glasgow being more leftwing than Liverpool...

The hardcore come from around Glasgow and the coast. Everton had quite a nasty following back in the days so...

[Zinneke]

There's possibly a case for arguing that Glasgow is even more left-wing than Liverpool - in a lot of places the SNP can't be treated as a straightforward left-of-centre vote, but it's hard to argue for anything else in Glasgow.

I mean, the presence alone of Rangers Football Club is a pretty good counter argument to Glasgow being more leftwing than Liverpool...

The hardcore come from around Glasgow and the coast. Everton had quite a nasty following back in the days so...

I know Rangers have big implantation in Ayshire but they also have a big local following in traditional Protestant districts of Glasgow, in the south  (trace a line from govan hill to the bottom of the city limits). That coincidentally have high Tory numbers...and also go into some rangers supporting pubs in Glasgow with some nice mural-like red hands with UVF stuff and RAF symbols...you'd never see anything like that in Liverpool

Not saying they are plurality in the city. But in general Glasgow has a right wing element you wouldn't see in a city like Liverpool. I have never heard of these right wing evertonians though and am intrigued.

[palandio]

The 2017 German federal election was an absolute desaster for the combined center-left/left. In many perceived left-wing strongholds they did not even get over 50%. The cities with the strongest SPD+Greens+Left result were:

Emden 56.7% (Calvinist, Volkswagen plant)
Tübingen 56.6% (small city dominated by old university)
Göttingen 55.9% (small city dominated by old university)
Marburg 54.6% (small city dominated by old university)
Freiburg 54.4% (has a university, city is bigger than the three above)
Kassel 52.8% (university, Calvinists, Volkswagen plant)
Kiel 52.3% (university, harbor)
Oldenburg 52.3% [added afterwards]
Darmstadt 52.1% (university, industry)
Lüneburg 51.7% (university)
Bremen 51.4%
Flensburg 51.3% (Danes?)
Hannover 50.8%
Saarbrücken 50.7%
Potsdam 50.4% (the first in the East)
Bremerhaven 50.1%

Hamburg is at 49.6%, Berlin at 49.3%, Leipzig at 42.8%.
All major Ruhr area cities are below 50%, although Bergkamen, Kamen and Kamp-Lintfort are slightly above 50%, but these are not really cities.

There are of course smaller towns with left-wing results over 50% as well and maybe I even forgot a relevant city (if yes, please point it out).

Altogether I would say that the most left-wing European city is probably not in Germany.