Left-wing MEPs, national lawmakers, party chiefs, EU commissioners and heads of government gathered at their congress before a European vote seen as the most important in decades.

Ukraine is struggling to fend off Russian troops two years after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion and surging support for “illiberal” right-wing groups is predicted.

“The very soul of Europe is at risk,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the delegates.

“The ghosts of the past are again at the gates of our institutions: hate, greed, falsehood, climate denialism, authoritarianism,” he added, warning of their “digital weapons” and “powerful allies” inside and outside Europe.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hit out at “right-wing populists running election campaigns against our united Europe and its core values” who are on the rise in democracies worldwide.

Raphael Glucksmann, the head of the French Socialist list, called the vote “the most important European elections in history” as Putin’s war “hammers” the continent.

The prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House after the US presidential election in November may mean “we will have to stay alone, alone in front of war”, he warned.

Sanchez met Scholz before the congress to discuss the war in Ukraine, which he said was “entering a delicate phase”.

“We must show our commitment and determination. The security and freedom of Europeans are at stake,” the Spanish premier wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Farmer anger 

The Party of European Socialists is the second-largest force in the European Parliament behind the conservative European People’s Party.

Three months from the elections, the two groups are gearing up for campaigning against a surging far right that could surf on a wave of discontent, notably from the agricultural sector, and make major gains.

French Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure said he feared the far right would harvest votes from angry farmers by claiming environmental and agricultural interests were at odds.

“We must constantly remember that the enemy of agriculture is not ecology, it’s liberalism,” he said, calling on European Socialists to offer hope to counter the far right’s message.

Veteran Dutch politician Frans Timmermans charged that the centre right “believes there is a future for them in aligning themselves with the extreme right”.

The Socialists also designated Luxembourg’s Nicolas Schmit as their candidate for European Commission president against incumbent Ursula von der Leyen, who is expected to run again for the job.