Partidele politice româneşti şi euroscpeticismul: explicarea variaţiilor de discurs între 2016-2020

Abstract

Party-based Euroscepticism has been the subject of multiple studies over the last two decades. Both Western and Eastern European parties are among the parties that take a critical position on European integration itself. By using a qualitative approach, this paper aims to identify the factors that may explain Euroscepticism among the Romanian political parties in 2016-2020. In this article we focus on the following parties: PSD, ALDE, UDMR, Pro România, PMP, PNL and USR and uses as data the discourses of the party leaders regarding the integration in the EU.The main findingsindicate that governing parties do not become more Eurosceptic based on their long interaction with the EU. The results contradict earlier findings according to which the party size and age can explain the degree of discourse Euroscepticism. The paper shows that electoral loss can be a potential explanation for the degree of Euroscepticism: political parties that have recently lost electoral support are Euro-optimistic, while those that are electorally stable tend to be more Eurosceptic.

Keywords

• party-based euroscepticism
• political party
• hard euroscepticism
• soft euroscepticism
• romania