From the beginning of the Great Recession (2008), the issue of European integration acquired increasing salience in many European polities. Extremist and niche parties have been the main agents of the politicization of the European issue; accordingly, mainstream parties have been forced to deal with a crisis of legitimacy of the European project. This chapter sheds light on the radical left (RLPs) and social democratic (SDPs) party families, that have had historically divergent positions on the EU: RLPs have been more sensitive to the issue of a social Europe and have opposed an integration of the EU dominated by neoliberal logic, thus coming to be defined as a Eurosceptic party family; SDPs, on the other hand, have been supportive of EU integration and of the European Social Model. The main research question is the following: to what extent do SDPs and RLPs still diverge in the political and socio-economic field with regard to the European Union? Through the comparison of the Spanish and the Italian cases the chapter concludes that: the crisis brought SDPs closer to a functional Europeanism, while the RLPs Eurocritical pre-crisis position was strengthened; while SDPs have moved leftward vis-à-vis the social Europe issue, the economic and political issues are still divisive for the two families.

European Integration and the Economic Crisis: The Changing Positions of Left Parties in Spain and Italy.

Tarditi V.;
2020

Abstract

From the beginning of the Great Recession (2008), the issue of European integration acquired increasing salience in many European polities. Extremist and niche parties have been the main agents of the politicization of the European issue; accordingly, mainstream parties have been forced to deal with a crisis of legitimacy of the European project. This chapter sheds light on the radical left (RLPs) and social democratic (SDPs) party families, that have had historically divergent positions on the EU: RLPs have been more sensitive to the issue of a social Europe and have opposed an integration of the EU dominated by neoliberal logic, thus coming to be defined as a Eurosceptic party family; SDPs, on the other hand, have been supportive of EU integration and of the European Social Model. The main research question is the following: to what extent do SDPs and RLPs still diverge in the political and socio-economic field with regard to the European Union? Through the comparison of the Spanish and the Italian cases the chapter concludes that: the crisis brought SDPs closer to a functional Europeanism, while the RLPs Eurocritical pre-crisis position was strengthened; while SDPs have moved leftward vis-à-vis the social Europe issue, the economic and political issues are still divisive for the two families.
2020
Anti-Europeanism. Critical Perspectives Towards the European Union.
115
134
Tarditi V., Vittori D.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/711736
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