Abstract
This chapter describes the diversity and evolution of oppositions to the European Union (EU) in France since the first EP election of 1979, while emphasizing and questioning the specificity of the 2014 European Parliament (EP) election. It explains how the European issue gained saliency, showing the normalization of EU criticism in the French political space and then its radicalization in 2014. The analysis reveals the weight of electoral rules in the shaping of the “eurosceptic” landscape, placing the 2014 success of the extreme-right National Front (FN) into that perspective. Assessing the effects of European integration on domestic political spaces, the chapter underlines how EP elections and the development of oppositions have contributed to reshaping the French domestic political arena while maintaining political conflicts there. Finally, in this perspective, the chapter questions the second-order model.
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