Turning against the union? The impact of the crisis on the Eurosceptic vote in the 2014 European Parliament elections

Sara B. Hobolt and Catherine E. de Vries

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The 2014 European Parliament elections were held against the backdrop of the worst economic crisis in post-war Europe. The elections saw an unprecedented surge in support for Eurosceptic parties. This raises the question of whether the crisis, and the EU's response to it, can explain the rise of Eurosceptic parties. Our analysis of the 2014 European Election Study demonstrates that the degree to which individuals were adversely affected by the crisis and their discontent with the EU's handling of the crisis are major factors in explaining defection from mainstream pro-European to Eurosceptic parties in these elections. This suggests that far from being second-order national elections concerned only with domestic politics, European issues had a significant impact on vote choices.

Keywords: Elections; European Parliament; Crisis; Economic voting; Euroscepticism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

Published in Electoral Studies, 1, December, 2016, 44, pp. 504-514. ISSN: 0261-3794

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:66831

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