EU issue voting in European member states : the return of the pro-EU voter

Abstract

In the member states of the European Union (EU), there are increasing signsof waning EU support, particularly in the form of anti-EU sentiment and voting.Yet, the salient role of pro-EU voting has not been side-lined entirely. Using acombination of data from EES and CHES that estimates the positional distancebetween voters and parties on the EU, the results suggest that voters are sig-nificantly mobilised on support for the EU. This is congruent to recent evi-dence that has shown that voters have rewarded parties with more polarisedstances on the EU and, contrary to Eurosceptic party mobilisation, those par-ties with a more extreme pro-EU stance. Here, the more vocal a Europhileparty, the more likely that citizens will vote for that party given their positionalcloseness to the EU. The findings in this article suggest the (re-) emergence ofan EU dimension with mobilising effects on parties and voters and seriousconsequences for the dynamics of party competition.