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Anti-EU Backlash from Below or Above? Public Opinion in Central and Eastern Europe Prior to the 2015 Migration Crisis
Otpor EU odozdo ili odozgo? Javno mnijenje u srednjoj i istočnoj Europi prije migracijske krize 2015
[journal article]
Abstract Relations between Brussels and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) worsened during and after the 2015 migration crisis. In order to see to what extent CEE citizens contributed to and/or resonated with this new state of affairs, this paper investigates public opinion before the migration crisis in seven... view more
Relations between Brussels and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) worsened during and after the 2015 migration crisis. In order to see to what extent CEE citizens contributed to and/or resonated with this new state of affairs, this paper investigates public opinion before the migration crisis in seven CEE EU Member States. We inquire whether the main issues of the rift (CEE political elites' opposition to following EU decisions and immigration and their emphasis on sovereignism, nationalism, Christian Europe and historical traumas) could also be traced to public stances towards these issues before the migration crisis. We used the ISSP National Identity module conducted in 2013 and 2014 in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia. The results show that opposition to EU supranationalism was not linked to ethnic nationalism and religious identity (except in Hungary). Contrary to political elites, who emphasised the cultural threat posed by migration, public opinion was more concerned with the economic threat. Moreover, the perception of cultural threat was not linked to opposing EU supranationalism in any of the countries. However, particularly support for sovereignism (in almost all the countries), but also pride in national history (in some countries) correlated negatively with support for EU supranationalism. The results suggest that political elites can bypass public opinion to construct an anti-EU climate, however not out of thin air. The conditions for such a process were present in Hungary with its emerging transnational cleavage, which shows the importance of cleavages in studying Euroscepticism.... view less
Keywords
ISSP; Central Europe; Eastern Europe; public opinion; attitude; national identity; migration; EU member state; immigration; Christianity
Classification
Migration, Sociology of Migration
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
Euroscepticism; International Social Survey Programme: National Identity III - ISSP 2013 (ZA5950 v2.0.0)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 317-345
Journal
Revija za sociologiju = Croatian sociological review, 51 (2021) 3
Issue topic
Croatian and European Societies in a Comparative Perspective
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5613/rzs.51.3.1
ISSN
1846-7954
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed