The party politics of the Euro crisis in the German Bundestag: frames, positions and salience

Abstract

The Euro crisis has a strong impact on European Union (EU) politics and the EU polity. Crisis-related issues were debated across Europe and governments and EU institutions introduced several institutional instruments which are meant to make EU economic governance more effective. This paper investigates the scope, timing and divisiveness of political contestation, i.e. politicisation, in the German Bundestag and the frames on which political parties relied in their debates on crisis-induced institutional innovations in the German Bundestag. To account for these patterns, the paper relies on institutional theories and theories of party competition. Empirically, it draws on written protocols of debates and parliamentary questions in the Bundestag. A case study of Germany and the Bundestag does not lend itself to broad generalisations. Yet, as argued in the article, it is an unlikely case for politicisation and a politically important case.