Abstract
The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections saw unprecedented support for eurosceptic parties. This chapter aims to examine what message voters intended to send by voting for radical parties in Belgium. Drawing on the literature on citizens’ attitudes toward Europe, we analyze to what extent this surge of support for eurosceptic parties was about Europe. We rely on data from the 2014 PartiRep survey and test four models on the Belgian case. We show that despite strong depoliticization of European Union (EU) issues, Europe now matters even in Belgium. Citizens who voted for a radical and eurosceptic party did so not as a protest against the government or because of utilitarian or identity-related considerations, but to express anti-EU sentiments.
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