ABOUT

The Arab Spring resulted from a social movement and revolution that demanded social justice, democracy, freedom, independence and equality. This Arab social movement was able to oust the dictatorial and military regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen and the revolutionary struggle continues in other parts of the Arab world. These revolutions are building secular states founded on redefining the social contract and the fundamentals of citizenship so that the state is the protector and guarantor of civil rights and duties based on democratic principles, good governance, peaceful transition of power, redistribution of wealth and the protection of minorities. All of these developments have led to the foundation of Arab social democratic parties in countries where the Arab spring enabled the creation of democratic political freedoms such as Egypt and Tunis.  

Despite being newly established, experiencing a lack of funding, organizational capacity challenges and inexperience in political and electoral campaigning, the parties that adopted social democratic ideologies were able to achieve advanced results in the elections that took place in these Arab countries. In Tunis, El Takatol party came second in the elections and its leader is the leader of the National Foundation Council in Tunis. In Egypt, the social democratic parties achieved advanced results and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party's coalition was able to obtain approximately 2.5 million votes. In Palestine, the social democratic ideology, represented by the Fateh Palestinian Political Organization, took the lead almost 45 years ago and remains the dominant force in the Palestinian political sphere.  

In the Arab spring countries specifically and the Arab world generally, the political compass points towards a new era of dominance for social democracy in its ability to compete at the highest level of the political sphere. As a result, the idea of an Arab Social Democrats Forum emerged in order to have a focal point for solidifying and directing this political movement in order for the social democratic ideology to take the lead and compete in the Arab world through effective coordination on a domestic, regional and international level.