Yet another European country has swung to the right. Nearly 58 percent of Austrian voters cast ballots last Sunday for the center-right People’s Party or the far-right Freedom Party. It is likely that the two parties will form a governing coalition.

Since the 1980s, the Freedom Party has been associated with anti-immigration xenophobia, anti-Semitism and, more recently, Islamophobia. On Sunday, about 26 percent of Austrians backed the party, giving it its highest share of the vote since 1999. Though the center-left Social Democrats came in second place, avoiding an embarrassing third-place finish, less than one percentage point separated them from the Freedom Party.

The defeat of the progressive wing mirrors the lagging support for the center-left across Europe. In 2000, 10 of the 15 national governments within the European Union had left-wing parties in power. Today, only six of the 28 national governments do. Social democracy in Europe is in desperate need of renewal.

Many analysts continue to misdiagnose the root cause of the populist surge. Too often they blame economic forces when, as a growing pile of research shows, it has far more to do with values. As long as progressives fail to address the values gap, populists will have significant influence on Europe’s political landscape.