17:45 - 20:00
Friday-Panel
Chair/s:
Fabian Jonas Habersack
Discussant/s:
Jonathan Slapin
Meeting Room A

Roberto Pannico, Enrique Hernández
When opposites attract: Causes and consequences of different types of Euroscepticism among voters.

Lisanne de Blok, Catherine de Vries
A blessing and a curse? Examining public preferences for differentiated integration

Cyrille Thiébaut
Normalization of Euroscepticism or normal politicization of European integration: French elites' ambivalence towards the EU in the media

Anthony Ocepek
A Path to Moderate the Extremes? The Impact of Moderate Voters on Euroskeptic Party Policy Positions
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When opposites attract: Causes and consequences of different types of Euroscepticism among voters.
Roberto Pannico 1, Enrique Hernández 2
1 Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa
2 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The paper analyses the nature, causes and consequences of different types of Euroscepticism among voters.

Literature on party positions on European issues has shown that the relationship between left-right ideology and support for the EU has an inverse U-shape, with parties on both extremes of the ideological axis expressing a lower level of support than parties closer to the center. Radical left parties have always been critical about the free-market slant of EU policies, while radical right parties have underscored the threats posed by the integration process to national cultures and sovereignty. However, the Euroscepticism of these two groups of parties is different in nature. Leftist parties are not in principle against the idea of supranational integration and institutions, since they fit with leftist preferences for international cooperation and regulation. Conversely, the nationalistic and traditionalist worldview of right-wing parties is incompatible with the transfer of powers to supranational institutions and its corresponding loss of national sovereignty.

The paper uses panel survey data collected in Spain during 2019 to investigate whether, when, and with which consequences these differences exist among voters with different ideologies. The paper aims to assess: (i) whether different types of Euroscepticism exist among voters; (ii) whether and when voters’ Euroscepticism is aligned with the Euroscepticism of their parties; (iii) how (different types of) Euroscepticism affect(s) the likelihood of voting for different radical parties. The results will provide a finer-grained picture of citizens’ preferences and will shed light on the dynamics of the party-voter linkage on EU issues.

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