Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ghosts of West European communism live on

Germany marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2019. This article argues that alongside the sweeping changes that occurred in central and eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War also had a lasting legacy for western European states. While the demise of western Europe’s communist parties after 1989 appeared to signify the passing of a burnt-out cause, it acted as a catalyst for change in the political space to the left of social democracy, generating new ideas and configurations that continue to shape politics today