Over the last three decades, European integration has developed from being an elite issue to an issue politicized among both the party and citizen level. Yet, the extent of the fracture between citizens and elites on this issue remains understudied. While studies examined the congruence between parties and citizens for general opinions toward European integration, much less is known about party-citizen congruence regarding specific EU issues or policies. One very practical aspect – particularly emerged in the context of Brexit – is the option of holding an EU exit referendum. Especially (opposition) parties on the right campaign for this possibility in order to gain the support of citizens with anti-EU attitudes.

It is unclear, though, to what extent parties and citizens agree to actually hold EU exit referendums. While parties’ stances on that option may follow a public desire to hold such a referendum, parties may also be upfront with their preference without representing their electorate’s opinion on it. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the party and citizen level regarding the option of holding an EU exit referendum. For this, we consider both the congruence of positions between parties and their electorates, but also the more systemic polarization of this discussion among parties and among the public, and the (mis)match of it. For our analysis, we link original cross-country survey data including ten EU member states and expert survey data on parties’ positions across the whole EU, both collected in 2019.