The Influence of Religion on Political Parties of the European Union

Abstract

The chapter is aimed to carry out discourse analysis of theoretical approaches and documents that highlight the issues of transformation of party-political systems of the EU countries. The religious factor is one of the catalysts for changes in modern parties of the EU, which, being different in their ideological orientation, electoral base, and territorial character, are influenced by general development trends. An important result of the discourse analysis is the conclusion about the weakening of the traditional parties, which from the national level has become a tendency of the pan-European political process. The religious factor stimulates the formation of small parties, which performs a great role in the development of tourism in the EU. The small parties are considered to be the defenders of local cultural and religious identities. The specific position of small parties to the development of tourism is caused by the wish to follow the economic interest and by the need to defend the local identities.