SRA-E Lisbon 2017

Due to concerns about climate change and energy security the salience of the energy production issue increased in many countries. In countries that produce nuclear energy these debates often focused on the role of nuclear energy in their national energy mix. Also in Belgium the debate on nuclear energy production re-emerged on the political agenda, when in 2015 the government decided to extend the operational life of the two oldest nuclear reactors with ten years, until 2025. According to the 2003 phase-out law both nuclear reactors should have closed in 2015. In this presentation results are shown of a study on the politicization of the nuclear energy production issue in Belgium (2014-2016), and how the political (elite) debate on this issue affected public opinion. Results were obtained by combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. Qualitative analysis was used to describe the elite debate on nuclear energy production, providing insights in the existing advocacy coalitions, and the role political parties play in these coalitions. Quantitative analysis was used to study public opinion formation on the issue of nuclear energy production (n=1028). Results show that even when controlling for important attitude predictors such as risk perception and benefit perception, vote intention has a net effect on attitude towards nuclear energy. Groups based on vote intention significantly differed in their attitude towards nuclear energy, indicating that certain groups in the public became politicized as a result of the elite debate on the issue. We therefore argue that political affiliation can help to explain how people form their opinion on complex and risk related issues. Results of this study are therefore useful to understand how elite politicization affects public opinion on other complex issues, such as climate change.