Bernie Sanders has called for an “international progressive front” to combat surging xenophobia and right-wing authoritarianism in the United States, Europe, and Latin America—a rallying cry that has left-wing politicians across the world enthusiastic for the Vermont senator’s 2020 presidential bid.

“Given that he’s gained so much appeal in the United States, I think people in the U.K. and around the world have found that particularly inspiring.”
—Richard Burgon, U.K. Labour Party

“From South America to Europe to the Middle East, leftist leaders are celebrating his candidacy, viewing him as an iconic democratic socialist with the potential to lead a worldwide progressive movement at a time when right-wing populism is on the rise across the map,” Politico‘s Holly Otterbein reported Thursday.

“In Canada, Israel, Germany and Spain, progressive politicians have also hailed the Vermont senator on social media and in interviews,” Otterbein continued, “often speaking favorably of his ‘Medicare for All’ proposal, noninterventionist foreign policy and advocacy for the ‘Green New Deal.'”

As Common Dreams reported last November, DiEM25 and the Sanders Institute—founded by Sanders’ wife Jane O’Meara Sanders—launched the Progressive International with the goal of organizing the global left to both defeat the right and address the world’s most urgent crises, from climate change to endless war to soaring wealth inequality.

“Let me convey a message from all of us in Europe, for all those comrades of yours who are now struggling to reclaim our cities, our world, our environment,” DiEM25 co-founder and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis declared during the inaugural gathering of the Sanders Institute in Vermont last November. “We need Bernie Sanders to run for president.”

“We must take the opportunity to reconceptualize a genuinely progressive global order based on human solidarity.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

Since Sanders announced his presidential candidacy in February, progressive leaders across the world have echoed Varoufakis, arguing that the Vermont senator is the only U.S. presidential candidate offering a truly global vision for a progressive future.

Niki Ashton, a Canadian member of Parliament, said Sanders “has shifted the conversations both in the U.S. and around the world.”

Richard Burgon, the U.K. Labour Party’s shadow justice secretary, echoed Ashton, telling Politico that the Vermont senator is “very exciting as part of an international movement against neoliberal economic inequality.”