News that the Labour Party re-joined the Socialist International was rather irrelevant until I realised that apparently, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is trying to revive it. He currently presides over the organisation, and during their last conference, they agreed to establish a fund for the organization and open a new office in Madrid.
The Socialist International has been inactive and quite irrelevant for a long time, probably ever since the German Chancellor Willy Brandt stopped presiding it. The Labour Party left the Socialist International under Joseph Muscat’s administration because paying the membership fees was useless and provided little in return. The organisation eventually developed as a meeting group for African socialist parties who also used the organisation to legitimise their existence back in their non-democratic and dictatorial-run countries.
Although there seem to be heads of government that are attending the conferences (Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania can be seen in the photo), so far the organisation still seems to be the same talking shop it was before. It serves members of socialist parties to network and meet new people from different countries which may be also be useful for diplomacy, but the organisation holds no weight or relevance internationally.
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