The paper challenges the perceived inevitability of the peripheral decline of social democratic
parties (SDPs) by presenting new evidence. To address this issue, we compare the most striking
case of social democratic decline -PASOK in Greece- with the most notable case of resilience -
CHP in Turkey- in Southern Europe. By adopting the critique of the Third Way approach, we
present three key findings. First, we argue that the Third Way is politically costly in the long term,
particularly during economic crises. Second, we demonstrate that while PASOK’s neoliberal
transformation hindered it from capitalizing on growing social protests during the crisis, CHP’s
shift towards traditional social democracy boosted its electoral appeal. Finally, we contend that
shifting from the Third Way back to traditional social democracy offers the most viable path for
SDPs to recover from their peripheral decline.