Europe’s socialist leaders are avoiding the topic of illegal immigration as they struggle to compete with conservative populism across the continent.
The Party of European Socialists (PES), Europe’s second-largest political group, is hosting a three-day summit in Amsterdam beginning Thursday to energize activists as elections play out in various European countries. However, the leftist coalition will barely be addressing the issue of mass immigration, despite it being a top concern among European leaders.
“Migrants are increasingly criminalized and used as a scapegoat for social and economic hardships and to justify discriminatory policies,” states the one and only reference to the subject in the PES’ final declaration of the congress, first obtained by Politico. A Social Policy program, to be approved on Friday, also states the need to guarantee “the protection of migrants, asylum seekers and undocumented people.”
Immigration is not mentioned in an outline establishing the group’s priorities and talking points, and there is no scheduled debate for the issue, according to Politico.
Europe experienced an illegal immigration crisis in the mid-2010s when civil war in Syria and other international conflicts caused massive refugee flows, with more than one million illegal migrants landing on the continent in 2015.
While illegal immigration into the European Union dropped off during the COVID-19 pandemic, it then consistently increased every year, reaching 380,000 in 2023, according to the Economist. These European-bound migrants have typically arrived by boat through the Mediterranean Sea. Roughly 112,000 illegal migrants crossed into Europe in the first eight months of 2025.
The European left’s attempt to minimize immigration issues comes after right-wing parties made major gains in the European Union’s 2024 parliamentary elections. Immigration hardliners — such as Alternative for Germany, Brothers of Italy and France’s National Rally — increased their seats in the voting body.
Right-wing populist parties won in Hungary, Italy and Slovakia, and they are members of ruling coalitions in Finland and Sweden. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has made immigration enforcement a top issue, is on track to gain the largest majority in the country’s modern history, according to the latest surveys.
In the Netherlands, longtime conservative populist Geert Wilders pledged to halt all asylum claims for four years if he wins the country’s election later in October. Wilders’ party is currently leading in the polls. Like other populist European leaders, he boasts a warm relationship with President Donald Trump.
Thank you so much Mr President @realDonaldTrump for the excellent meeting we just had and our discussion about the need for tougher immigration laws!
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) June 25, 2025
Europe’s evolving stance on immigration is also producing tensions for the implementation of a 2023 immigration and asylum law, set to take effect by June 2026, that is intended to balance the responsibility for the continent’s immigrants. One member state, Poland, declared it’s unwilling to take in more migrants and would rather fund frontline nations to stop illegal immigration altogether.
While some European socialists are avoiding the immigration issue, other leftist leaders are embracing tougher border enforcement. The Danish Socialists have prioritized a tougher deportation agenda, according to Politico. The leftist party’s change came after hardline anti-immigration candidates surged across the Nordic country.
“My party should have listened,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen — leader of the Social Democrats, a member party of the PES — said of her citizens’ antipathy toward mass migration. Frederiksen’s embrace of hardline immigration policies proved popular with her constituents.
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