In 1989, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote an essay titled, The End of History?, where he announced the death of ideologies and the definitive victory of economic and political liberalism. Fukuyama hypothesized a world in which governments deal exclusively with “the endless solving of technical problems, environmental concerns and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands” all due to the extinction of idealism and imagination.

Thirty years later, Fukuyama’s theory could not have been proven to be more incorrect. His predicted “death of ideologies” and consequent Western liberalization of the globe has been swept away by the emergence of authoritarian right-wing populism, the reinforcement of Chinese communism, the rise of anti-establishment movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, the affirmation of identity politics and the resurgence of millennial-driven socialism and progressivism.

These socialist and progressivist movements among young people are particularly interesting. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, socialism was proclaimed a failed ideology – something that should never be attempted again. Fast forwarding to the 2016 U.S. American Presidential primary election, and the world saw a democratic socialist candidate, Bernie Sanders, receive 12 million votes in the most capitalist economy on earth. Two years later, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-proclaimed socialist, defeated a ten-year incumbent Democratic senator with the help of a wide range of progressive political action committees captained by the Justice Democrats, consisting of the former leadership of Sanders’s 2016 Presidential Campaign. A recent Gallup poll showed that, at present, 47 percent of Democrats hold a positive view of capitalism – a 9 percent decrease from 56 percent in 2016 – while 57 percent of them have a positive view of socialism. Among Democrats, socialism is now preferable to capitalism.

Let that sink in for a moment.

From where does this renewed socialist sentiment originate? To provide an answer, we must retreat into the early 1990s, when left-leaning parties shifted toward the center, giving birth to the so-called “third way,” – a centrist political position with center-right economic ideals and center-left social policies. These third way parties hegemonized the vote of the first batch of millennials entering the job market, and were therefore held accountable when the 2008 financial crisis hit. The millennial generation grew disappointed with these parties, which failed first to deliver on their promise to strengthen the economy and then were unable to implement successful solutions to recover from the 2008 financial crisis. Disenchanted by third way parties and financially devastated by the crisis, millennials started asking governments to regulate, run and pay for social programs that would focus on providing basic health, education, housing and employment for the population. The proposed programs include Medicare for All, free college tuition, increased minimum wages and universal basic income. It is from these proposals that the success of socialist candidates, like Sanders and Cortez in the U.S. and left-wing populists like Die Linke and Podemos in Europe, has originated. The result today is that 51 percent of U.S. Americans aged 18 to 29 – the so-called millennials – view socialism positively, compared to only 45 percent of the cohort who view capitalism positively.

But the resurging waves of socialism and left-wing populism are not just demanding social transfers to boost the incomes of the poor; they are also asking for more political power and decision making in the workplace. There is no clear-cut answer on how to achieve these cumbersome goals; however, Die Linke, a German democratic socialist party, has promised to “create suitable legal forms to facilitate and promote the joint takeover of enterprises by the employees.” This could be a concrete way in which neo-socialist parties can quench the thirst for more power of their millennial electorate. Another proposal aims to “democratize” the economy. This comes from the Labour party in the UK, which promised to double the size of the co-operative sector and to force private firms with more than 250 employees to transfer 10 percent of their shares to a fund managed by worker representatives.

Other than social transfers and democratization of the economy, socialists and progressives place a greater emphasis on protecting the environment from climate change. Cortez proposed a Green New Deal that would force the U.S. to transition toward 100 percent renewable zero-emission energy sources by 2030 through the promotion of investments into electric cars and the implementation of a carbon tax. This sentiment is shared, to a great extent, by the millennial generation, with 70 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 are “worried a great deal about global warming.” Needless to say, most of this 70 percent are politically oriented towards the left, which means that socialist candidates proposing “green” measures may potentially win over some of the electorate from the more conservative leaders of the Democratic Party, which sometimes seem to neglect the global warming issue. Likewise, in Europe, millennials are leaning more toward progressive and socialist movements, all with a great emphasis on environmental protection. An example of this phenomenon is the pan-European movement Volt Europa, founded in 2017 by a 26-year-old Italian graduate student. Volt Europa’s objective is to fight poverty and inequality through the establishment of a European minimum wage. Volt Europa also wants more investments on welfare policies, related to education and healthcare in particular, and a heavy investment in the green and blue economy.

Another example is the recent School Strike for Climate Movement, part of a larger Climate Movement, initiated by a 16-year-old Swedish activist named Greta Thunberg. In just under a couple of months, Thunberg was able to spark a protest of at least 45,000 students in Switzerland and Germany alone. On Mar. 15 the largest of these protests is to happen in at least a dozen of countries, with tens of thousands of students planning to skip school. Although there is still no relevant information on the political preferences of the School Strike for Climate Movement – partly due to the young age of its members, many of whom still cannot vote, and partly due to its recent foundation – I predict that the majority of the movement will end up voting for neo-socialist progressivist candidates. And this is not only due to progressivist parties being more prone to support measures against climate change, but also simply because the first politicians to oppose this movement were three center-right politicians: Scott Morrison, Joke Schauvliege and Armin Lascet.

A coincidence? I don’t think so.

With a world that seems to be moving toward the authoritarian right, will the millennial generation have enough courage and strategy to act on their beliefs and rise as a successful counterforce? This is the real question that millennials should ask themselves today. Statistics show that these sentiments are present, but in order for change to happen, they must act on those numbers and make them a reality. The upcoming European Parliamentary Elections are a first test bench, so let’s see what happens.