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Luka Filipović, PhD
Institute for Contemporary History, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

ZENITH AND DOWNFALL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN FAR-LEFT: LEAGUE OF COMMUNISTS OF YUGOSLAVIA AND EUROCOMMUNISTS IN THE LATE 1970s

Vol. XLIV, 2/2026, pp. 511–530
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2026.2.fil.511-530

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

During the second half of the 1970s, parties on the Western European far left experienced both the zenith and the decline of their popularity and political influence. At the same time, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia reached the zenith of its influence among the far-left parties of the Mediterranean. It began to witness a gradual decline in its role within the turbulent currents of relations between the largest Marxist parties outside the Eastern Bloc. The following years would see the gradual drift away from the Yugoslav party and Eurocommunist parties, as well as numerous political setbacks that Mediterranean communist parties suffered during the time of socialist and early neoliberal governments. While trying to navigate the increasingly complex relations between the former allies and contribute to the formation of an international initiative against neoliberal reforms in continental Europe, Yugoslav communists finally found that the long-term effects of internal changes within their party had caught up with them. Subsequently, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia opted to support the French Communist Party in its pending conflict with the Italian communists over how to respond to the growing influence of neoliberal parties and movements. In the end, the Italian party was left isolated both internally and in relations with the other European Marxist parties after the death of Aldo Moro had cut short their attempts at finalising a political compromise with their government, while Yugoslav and French parties abandoned both the last remains of their reformist policies and the notion of a collective struggle against neoliberalism.

 

KEYWORDS: Eurocommunism, democratic socialism, welfare state, neoliberalism, League of Communists of Yugoslavia, Communist Party of Italy

 

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