Think European, act local: do Italians think of Europe when they vote in national elections?

Abstract

ABSTRACT In many respects, Italy – a founding member of the EU and once one of its most pro-European countries – may well represent today a privileged observation point for the study of the electoral behaviour of Eurosceptic voters. In the article, we look for evidence about a Eurosceptical match between the demand and the supply sides of the Italian electoral process. For this purpose, through use of data collected by the Itanes 2018 national election survey, we analyse whether it is possible to find a relationship between Eurosceptical attitudes among voters and their vote choice for Eurosceptic parties. We hypothesise that those citizens who have turned their back on the EU rejecting its intervention and who prioritise instead defence of national sovereignty have a greater propensity to vote for Eurosceptic parties. Results confirm our hypothesis showing that, in a context of growing disenchantment of Italian public opinion toward the EU, Eurosceptic voters increasingly mobilised in support of those parties that have made great efforts in the past to politicise EU issues and to establish their ownership on Euroscepticism.