(Petr Kopecky, Cas Mudde) - The Two Sides of Euroscepticism
(Petr Kopecky, Cas Mudde) - The Two Sides of Euroscepticism
(Petr Kopecky, Cas Mudde) - The Two Sides of Euroscepticism
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Euroscepticism
Party Positions on European Integration
in East Central Europe
Petr Kopecky
Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
Cas Mudde
Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium
ABSTRACT
KEY WORDS
EU enlargement
Euroscepticism
political parties
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Introduction
A striking feature of contemporary politics in East Central Europe (ECE) is
the ongoing erosion of the consensus on the question of European integration.
Shortly after the revolutions of 1989, the idea of Europe became an allembracing concept, which united the political elites and the masses in their
burning desire to join the European Union (EU). Return to Europe was one
of the main slogans in the early 1990s (see Pontes Resende and Tanasoiu,
2001). At that time, it was difficult to find a political party or movement that
would seriously consider alternatives to joining the EU in its existing form;
the mass public was overwhelmingly positive too. Now, more than a decade
after the transitions, and shortly before the possible accession to the EU of
the ECE countries, the picture appears to be radically different. Debates
between and within parties are getting more intense, and criticism of the EU
is growing. Moreover, as various public opinion polls indicate, mass support
for EU membership has been declining as well (see Grabbe and Hughes, 1999).
Although the previous, and to some extent romantic and illusory, consensus
concerning Europe has evaporated, a new one has yet to be formed.
However, opposition to the EU within the ECE countries is manifested
differently both in public opinion and by political elites. Poland, Hungary,
and the Czech and Slovak Republics provide such contrasting experiences.
For example, Slovakia, which encountered serious difficulties in its path
toward EU membership, combines a relatively low level of consensus among
the political elite on the question of EU enlargement with a relatively high
level of positive consensus at the mass level. Hungary and the Czech
Republic, which are certain to be among the first ECE countries to join the
EU, are showing signs of ambiguous elite approaches towards the political,
economic, and security structures of the EU, and, in the Czech Republic, a
comparatively high negative image of the EU at the mass level. Poland, also
in the group of front-runners, displays relatively high levels of both positive
elite consensus and mass public support for the EU. Moreover, within these
countries, there are parties as well as party factions that are hostile to
European integration.
But how exactly is the opposition to Europe to be understood, and how
relevant is it in the domestic political structures of the ECE countries? Are the
terms commonly used to categorize opposition to European integration, such
as Eurosceptic or Eurorealist, useful in general, and in ECE in particular?
Indeed, is Euroscepticism really gaining ground in East Central Europe? This
article attempts to answer these questions (a) by developing a conceptual
scheme through which the opposition to Europe in general, and Euroscepticism in particular, can be studied, and (b) by exploring party-based attitudes
Defining Euroscepticism
Both academic studies and the popular political discourse concerning
European integration have been plagued by a whole range of terms used to
capture opposition to these processes. Euroscepticism has been the most frequently used term in this respect, but alternative and complementary terms
are commonplace as well. What is striking is not so much the fact that politicians often fight over where exactly they or their party belong ideologically,
but the fact that these terms are presented with very little specification as to
what they may actually mean. Therefore, any analysis of Euroscepticism must
inevitably start with a precise definition of the term, and in particular its
differentiation from other popular terms, such as Europhobia or Europragmatism.
Most of the current comparative literature on Euroscepticism has been
using the influential definition initially proposed by Paul Taggart, who
suggests that Euroscepticism is best studied as an encompassing term that
expresses the idea of contingent, or qualified opposition, as well as
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EU-optimist
Europhile
Europhobe
Euroenthusiasts
Europragmatists
Eurosceptics
Eurorejects
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
f
o
r
E
U
EU-pessimist
Figure 1
those we label (for want of a better term) the Europragmatists. This group
combines Europhobe and EU-optimist positions: they do not support the
general ideas of European integration underlying the EU, nor do they necessarily oppose them, yet they do support the EU. In general, this group will
contain parties that do not hold a firm ideological opinion on European integration, and on the basis of pragmatic (often utilitarian) considerations decide
to assess the EU positively because they deem it profitable for their own
country or constituency.
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The usefulness of the proposed typology will become apparent from the
following qualitative analysis of party positions on European integration in
ECE. We agree with Tiersky (2001b: 305) that [t]o organize the matter of the
subject, tags such as Euro-skepticism, Euro-optimism, Euro-pessimism, Europhobia, and Euro-enthusiasm are serviceable, so long as we remember that
labels are a beginning, not the end of the discussion. Indeed, if anything, we
believe that our conceptual scheme offers a good analytical tool for understanding the goals and strategies of political elites opposing Europe.
Let us stress, however, that the proposed four categories are only ideal
types. Unlike other scholars (e.g. Tiersky, 2001a), we do not, for example,
define Euroscepticism in essentialist and rigid terms. Rather, we believe that
Euroscepticism can take different forms and shapes, following from different
visions of European integration and different interpretations of the EU.
However, we do concur with Tiersky that all Eurosceptics are Europhile:
Euro-skeptics are not against what they see as realistic advantageous cooperation among various groups of European states for greater peace and prosperity (2001a: 3).
although there has been some oscillation in public support in each individual
country, all countries are showing a declining trend in support. For example,
according to a May 2001 GfK poll, the number of respondents in favour of
accession has fallen to a record low of 42% in the Czech Republic, and in
Poland too the figure fell below the important 50% level (44%). Only in
Hungary does a majority still support EU membership (54%). Unfortunately,
the poll excluded Slovakia.7
The Hungarians remain the strongest supporters of accession, and the
Czechs appear the most reluctant, with the Poles and the Slovaks somewhere
in between. Moreover, the Hungarians not only declare the strongest support
for European integration, but also evaluate relations between their country
and the EU most favourably. In June 2000, the largest percentage of Hungarians (38%) described these relations as equally beneficial for their country and
the EU, and almost one in four (24%) thought that Hungary benefited most
from these relations. In contrast, 50% of Poles think that the EU benefits most
from these relations (with 26% believing both Poland and the EU benefit
equally, and only 6% believing Poland benefits most). The Czechs appear
slightly more positive than the Poles, though not as much as the Hungarians:
27% think the relations are equally beneficial, 34% that they are most beneficial
for the EU, and 16% that they are most beneficial for the Czech Republic
(CEORG, 2000). Comparable data on Slovakia were not available to us.
The Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has gradually acquired the popular status of the most
Eurosceptic ECE country. The presented data on public support for the EU
go some way to uphold this view, as do the debates conducted at the elite
level. For example, a study of the views of Czech local politicians on European
integration, based on interviews conducted in 1997, notes that Czech local
politicians have little knowledge of and interest in the EU. Indeed, most
consider the EU a necessary evil (Perron, 2000: 22). Resentment is mainly
the consequence of a feeling of being treated as an unequal partner, fear of a
loss of national sovereignty (linked to the Soviet experience), and, among
right-wing parties, the alleged socialism of the Brussels bureaucracy (the last
issue is the only substantial point of difference between right-wing and leftwing local politicians).
There are four main Euroenthusiast parties in the Czech Republic. The
Christian Democratic UnionCzech Peoples Party (KDUSL), the Civic
Democratic Alliance (ODA), and the Freedom Union (US) are all firmly proEuropean integration and pro-EU, and so are the majority of their voters (see
Mastalir, 1999; Mares, 2000). The Czech Social Democratic Party (SSD) is
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Since 1998, the pariah KSM (Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia)
has become the sole flag-bearer of the Euroreject cause in the Czech parliament. However, the party is somewhat difficult to classify because it hovers
between a Euroreject and a Europragmatic position. Whereas the Communists supported Czechoslovak EU membership shortly after the regime
change in 1989 (but always opposed NATO), the party has moved over time
to a far more critical position. The material published on the party website
(www.kscm.cz) suggests not only that the KSM is currently highly ambiguous about EU membership, but also that its criticism of European integration
bears all the hallmarks of a Euroreject party. The Communists associate the
process of European integration with exploitative multinational capitalism.
The accession process itself is seen as dominated by, and protective of German
economic interests in particular. Thus, the KSM rejects both the economic
and political foundations underlying European integration and the EU itself,
putting it in the group of Euroreject parties.
That said, the party has not categorically ruled out EU membership. This
may stem from a schism in the Communists feelings towards European integration whether to see it as a (positive) realization of internationalism, or
as a (negative) product of imperialism (Mare, 2000). Most importantly, it
derives from the division that exists between the party leadership and the
party membership. Whereas many leaders are keen to accept EU membership (a Europragmatic position), mainly in order to gain broader acceptance
within the domestic and international political establishment, the members
appear much truer to the partys declared ideological opposition and thus
adopt a Euroreject stance.
Hungary
Although Hungary has the most Europhile population and is generally considered to be the main front-runner of the four ECE countries discussed here,
the issue of European integration is not particularly salient in the Hungarian
public debate (see Hegedus, 1999; Navracsics, 1997). Moreover, the Hungarian elite has become less Europhile over the years and, in particular, the last
government had a somewhat strained relationship with the EU. In recent
years, this has been best exemplified by the criticism of the lack of speed of
the EU accession process by the prime minister, Victor Orbn, and the agitated
reactions of EU officials. In addition, some key Hungarian parties are moderately, and some even extremely, critical both of the process of European integration and of the EU.
The two parties constituting the previous government, under Prime
Minister Gyula Horn, are the most outspoken Euroenthusiasts in Hungary.
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major political parties make a point about defending Polish interests in the
accession process, though, as we shall see, this is sometimes more a matter
of strategy than of ideological persuasion.
The Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) is the organizationally restructured and ideologically changed successor to the former ruling communist
party. It entered government for the first time in the post-communist period
in 1993, and its leader, Aleksander Kwaniewski, was elected president of
Poland in 1995 and convincingly re-elected in 2000. The SLD is essentially a
Euroenthusiast and modern social democratic party. Its attitudes toward the
EU are the same as those of other current mainstream social democrats in
Europe (for example, the British Labour Party or the SSD). The SLD shares
the Polish Euroenthusiast arena with the Freedom Union (UW), a secular and
liberal party (home of Balczerowicz) that lost parliamentary representation in
2001, and with the Civic Platform (PO), a new right-of-centre party that first
entered parliament that year.
The Polish Peasant Party (PSL), successor to a satellite party under communism, has a strong rural constituency containing both small private
farmers and some big capitalist farmers. Given the structure of Polish agriculture and the problems it is facing while negotiating EU entry, it is not surprising that the PSL has one of the most Eurosceptic electorates, especially
among the smallholding peasants (see Szczerbiak, 2001b). In its propaganda,
the party also claims to adopt a hard stance in negotiations with the EU, protecting the Polish national (read, agricultural) interests. However, this mainly
reflects the perceived threat from its more radical competitors, such as Samoobrona (discussed later). The PSL elite believes both in the ideas underlying
European integration and in the EU (because of its support for farmers), and
is thus a Euroenthusiast party. According to the party, Poland should get the
best possible deal within the EU.
Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) was established in 1996 as an attempt
to reunite the Polish Right. It was a very diverse electoral coalition rather than
a party in the traditional sense. The AWS won the 1997 parliamentary elections and formed a government with the UW. Officially Euroenthusiast, the
AWS is very pro-clerical and has strong links to the Catholic Church. Until
1997, the party was very ambiguous about Europe, combining a commitment
to European unity and Western civilization with strong doubts about the consumerism, secular liberalism, and permissive societies of Western Europe.
After 1997, the Church (i.e. the episcopate) shifted its position, unexpectedly
embracing European integration (Millard, 1999). This notwithstanding, there
have been various Euroreject and Eurosceptic factions within the original
AWS,8 and also within its successor, the AWSP (Solidarity Election Action
Right), which did not gain parliamentary representation in the 2001 elections.
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Peace and Justice (PiS) is a new conservative cadre party, which was
founded shortly before the 2001 parliamentary elections in opposition to both
the SLD and the AWS. It successfully contested the elections on an authoritarian and populist platform, including tough law and order measures and a
critique of economic reforms and of European integration (Harvey-Smith,
2002). In spite of this, the PiS is a moderately Europhile party. Its election programme states: The second most important direction of our foreign policy
[after membership of NATO] is to try to get Poland into the European Union
(PiS, n.d.a). However, according to the PiS the EU should be based on strong,
unitary nation-states, not unlike de Gaulles famous dictum of a Europe de
Patries. Consequently, it is EU-pessimist in word and deed, opposing the
speedy accession route being taken by the current left-wing Polish government. In its political manifesto, the PiS insists that, before the final decision
on EU membership is taken, the possible long-term consequences and costs
of European integration have to be analysed. After that, [t]he nation has to
decide on the basis of its conscience (PiS, n.d.b). In conclusion, the PiS is a
Eurosceptic party, which currently is actually opposed to EU membership in
the short term.
Another new parliamentary party is the League of Polish Families (LPR);
its leaders originate from within the AWS, while its support comes from the
orthodox Catholic subculture around the infamous Radio Maryja. The LPR is
an extreme right party, with a pro-clerical, anti-reform, and anti-integration
platform. In its election programme the party claims that it will denounce the
accession treaty because it will cost Poland US$10 billion and some 1 million
jobs (LPR, n.d.). In line with its anti-Semitic nationalism, the LPR describes
the EU as speculative foreign capital that will cause the destruction of Polish
conscience and culture (LPR, n.d.). Though the party does not express any
view on the ideas of European integration as such, party programme statements such as the following clearly demonstrate its Euroreject position: They
will succeed in melting our nation in a unified cosmopolitan European Union.
This is the purpose of the so-called reforms of Sachs and Soros, realised
through Balczerowicz, Bauc, and others, and supported by Kwaniewski,
Michnik and the cosmopolitan media (LPR, n.d.).
Self-Defence (Samoobrona), another successful parliamentary candidate
in the 2001 elections, is both a political party and a trade union, led by the
populist Andrzej Lepper (see Krok-Paszkowska, 2002). Notorious for his
radical actions in the defence of the interests of small farmers, including
several violent and disruptive demonstrations, Lepper cannot be pinned
down on a coherent ideology (similarly to Torgyn in Hungary). On the one
hand, he often flirts with nationalism, including anti-German and anti-EU
sentiments; he once described the EU as a new kolkhoz (Strobel, 2001: 278).
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often plays an obstructive role in the process of adoption of the acquis communitaire. It opposes many legislative acts, labelling them as betraying Slovak
interests and as geared towards the extinction of Slovak statehood. Indeed,
the partys statement that a constitutional commitment to open the country
toward the EU was a nightmare led the current ruling coalition to accuse
the HZDS of cynical insincerity in its proclaimed Europeanism. All in all, then,
the HZDS is a Europragmatic rather than a Euroreject or Eurosceptic party.
It has deep misgivings not only about the EU but also about the ideas underlying European integration. However, the leadership seeks international
recognition (of both the party and the Slovak state) by strategically supporting EU membership.
The extreme right Slovak National Party (SNS) is a Euroreject party,
deeply distrustful of both the ideas underlying European integration and the
EU itself. It favours a position of neutrality, which is particularly visible in
the partys vehement opposition to NATO but also in its preference for the
postponement of EU membership. However, while in government with the
HZDS, the SNSs opposition to the official pro-European government programme was largely muted (Fried, 1997). In opposition, the SNS no longer
masks its Euroreject position and is asking for EU membership to be put on
hold, at least temporarily. Following the near demise of its former coalition
partner, the ZRS (discussed next), the SNS remains the only Euroreject party
on the Slovak political scene. Although the party is now distancing itself from
its previously declared spiritual alliance with parties such as the French
National Front (FN) or the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), it is trying to establish new links with other Western extreme and mainstream right-wing parties,
such as the Italian National Alliance (AN), allied in the (Eurosceptic/Euroreject) Union for Europe of the Nations Group of the European Parliament.
The Slovak Workers Association (ZRS) was an extreme left flash-in-thepan party, which entered both parliament and government months after its
creation in 1994 and disappeared into political oblivion after the unsuccessful 1998 elections. As part of the 19948 Meiar government, it did not
question the official pro-European and pro-integrationist orientation. Yet it
was essentially a Euroreject party, being deeply critical of the process of
European integration in general, and of the process of EU accession in particular. For example, when in 1996 a Slovak journalist managed to obtain an
original (never published) typewritten draft of the party programme, which
included full support for the EU and NATO, party leader Jn Luptk publicly
declared this passage of the document to be a typing error! During the 1998
electoral campaign, Luptk also said: Slovakia can live without EU membership. The country has fertile soil and hard working hands. We do not want
to import their surplus products. We will grow our own tomatoes, peppers,
and red melons (Sme, 21 September 1998). Incidentally, the ZRS was the only
party in Slovakia in which a majority of its supporters reject EU membership
(Gyrfov, 1996: 289).
Most parties of the current 10-party coalition government (19982002) are
Euroenthusiasts. This includes three parties of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) the Democratic Party (DS), the Democratic Union (DU), and the
Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) as well as the Party of Civic Understanding (SOP). It also includes the reformed communist party of the Democratic Left (SDL), whose Euroenthusiasm is, like that of the SSD or MSZP,
in line with its membership of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International.9
The KDH (Christian Democratic Movement), however, is a slight exception. Elected in 1998 within the SDK, the KDH stood firmly in the camp of
pro-European forces in Slovak politics during the Meiar era. It also had one
of the most Europhile electorates, with 75% supporting EU membership
(Gyrfov, 1996: 289). However, the party has always included proponents
of a more cautious attitude towards the countrys Western (pro-EU) orientation, out of a conservative fear of the spread of certain values and ways of
life considered unsuitable for the Slovak people. After the KDH lost its more
modern and liberal components to the Slovak Democratic and Christian
Union (SDKU), it started to perceive the EU increasingly as being dominated
by left-wing liberal ideas. Consequently, it now openly expresses fears that
the EU will pressure Slovakia to adopt policies such as the legalization of gay
marriages. The KDH even initiated a parliamentary declaration asking for
cultural and ethical policies to remain firmly within the jurisdiction of individual EU member states. The party nevertheless approves of EU membership, even though the desirability of joining is expressed mainly in economic
terms. The KDH has therefore gradually adopted a Eurosceptic position.
Concluding discussion
Before we deal with the general implications of the proposed two-dimensional conceptualization of party positions on European integration, we will
first summarize the discussion on East Central Europe.
Euroscepticism in East Central Europe
In Figure 2 we have classified all the parties discussed in this paper according to our conceptual model. At least four observations stand out.
First, the figure clearly shows the large number of Euroenthusiast parties,
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Europhile
Europhobe
EUROENTHUSIASTS
EUROPRAGMATISTS
EU-optimist
FideszMPP, MDF
MSZP, SZDSZ
S
u
p
p
o
r
t
FKGP
CSSD,
KDUCSL,
ODA,
US
f
o
r
E
U
EU-pessimist
Figure 2
HZDS*
EUROSCEPTICS
EUROREJECTS
AWS(P)*, PiS
LPR, Samoobrona
KDNP*
MIP*
ODS
KSCM*,
SPRRSC
KDH
SNS, ZRS
Note: Parties marked with an asterisk are difficult to classify because they hover between two
types
Table 1 Percentage of votes and number of seats for each category of ECE parties in
the latest lower house elections
Category
Euroenthusiasts
Europragmatists
Eurorejects
Eurosceptics
49.9
14.9
27.7
113
24
63
72.8
13.2
5.5
2.3
323
48
14
0
65.8
18.1
15.1
323
91
44
58.1
27.0
10.4
93
43
14
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negative stance toward the EU and, even more importantly, toward the ideas
underlying the process of European integration. First, the EU is becoming
more and more defined, which limits the possible revisions to it. Second, the
EU is slowly but steadily becoming a relevant political issue in ECE politics,
which has increased the available knowledge and scrutiny of it. Forced by
the realities of European integration, parties such as ODS could come to the
same conclusions as the UKIP, and oppose not only the direction the EU is
taking but the whole process of European integration, including EU membership:
In 1975, the British people voted for the Common Market in good faith. They
were told it was going to be a genuine common market an association of independent, freely trading nation states. Instead, we have the European Union: centralised, bureaucratic, unaccountable and corrupt, eroding our independence and
dictating policies that we would never vote for in an election. (UKIP, 2001)
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play an important role in explaining a partys support for the EU. Of course,
this does not mean that parties will not move on the horizontal dimension at
all. However, our contention is that such a move would imply either a wholesale ideological change or a fundamental reassessment of the whole process
of European integration, as mentioned earlier. Something like that is unlikely
to occur within a short period of time, and without potentially costly consequences for the party.
Our general proposition is supported by the congruence between individual party positions and membership in party families. If party ideology
plays an important role in determining party positions on the dimension
support for European integration, we would expect all parties belonging to
one party family to have the same position on that dimension. This is indeed
the case for all but one party family in ECE. All social democrats (SSD,
MSZP, SDL, SLD) are Europhiles, as are all (left) liberals (DS, PO, SZDSZ,
UW). All extreme right parties (LPR, MIP, SNS, SPRRS) are Europhobes,
as are all unreformed or hard-line communist parties (KSM, ZRS).10 All these
parties also share the same position on the dimension support for the EU,
despite the fact that, for example, MSZP in Hungary is currently in opposition.
Two interesting cases further support our contention. Consistent with the
idea of the party family, all ECE conservative liberals (DU, Fidesz-MPP, MDF,
ODA, ODS, US) and all Christian democrats (KDH, KDNP, KDUSL) share
the same position on the dimension support for European integration. In
other words, all these parties are Europhile. However, they do differ on the
dimension support for the EU. For example, the ODS is EU-pessimist,
whereas all other conservative liberals are EU-optimists. In the case of the
Christian democrats, the KDUSL is EU-optimist, whereas the KDH and the
KDNP are EU-pessimist. This may well be explained by differences in ideological positions. First of all, right-wing parties are more ideologically eclectic
in post-communist Europe and there is a stronger tendency for the right there
to be more nationalistic than its Western counterparts (Taggart and Szczerbiak, 2001b). Second, as in Western Europe, conservative liberals differ in the
extent of their support for the EU, in particular on the question of how much
national sovereignty is to be delegated to the EU and how much regulation
is to be imposed on the market.
However, we can also argue that differences in position may be attributed to strategic considerations, most notably related to being in government
or opposition (see Taggart and Szczerbiak, 2001a, 2001b). For example, in the
Czech case, the ODS has sharpened its criticism of the EU since moving from
government into opposition (in 1997), while the US, a split off from the ODS,
has formulated its very optimistic position on the EU with frequent references
to the perceived pessimism of the ODS. Similar tactical moves are observable
in other parties, such as the KDNP, but always only on the vertical dimension (support for the EU). Moreover, contrary to general expectations, parties
do not always harden their position while in opposition. For example, the
HZDS actually softened its position after losing governmental power, and the
KSM is slowly softening as a consequence of being in permanent opposition.
Only one party family does not fit the expected positioning: the agrarians. The PSL, the FKGP, and Samoobrona are all in different categories, and
are even divided along the horizontal dimension (support for European integration). However, this is less surprising than it might appear. Agrarian
parties are first and foremost grouped together because of a shared constituency (farmers or the rural population) rather than on the basis of a shared
ideology, which is the more usual criterion for distinguishing party families
(Mair and Mudde, 1998).
In short, there are good grounds to argue that ideology is the crucial factor
in explaining the positions that political parties adopt on issues surrounding
the current process of European integration. This conclusion derives from our
empirical analysis of ECE parties, but is brought to the fore by our two-dimensional conceptualization of party positions on European integration.
However, the typology does not just categorize different positions on
European integration and the EU. It also caters for the dynamic nature of individual party positions and suggests the likely directions in which the goals
and strategies of the political elites dealing with Europe will evolve.
Notes
This is a substantially revised version of Empty Words or Irreducible Core?
Euroscepticism in East Central Europe, a paper we presented at the 97th Annual
Meeting of the American Political Science Association, 30 August2 September
2001, San Francisco. We would like to thank Agnes Batory (Cambridge), Zsolt
Enyedi (CEU), Stephen George (Sheffield), Peter Mair (Leiden), Goldie Shabad
(Ohio), and Peter Ue (Bratislava) for their valuable comments on that paper,
and Luke March and Anna ikov for linguistic assistance. We further express
our sincere gratitude to the two excellent referees, who provided us with
extremely comprehensive, critical, yet challenging and constructive comments.
1 Note that Taggarts original article (1998: 56) does allude to this distinction,
but the author opts for the broad definition outlined above.
2 We thank Peter Mair for pointing this analogy out to us.
3 We are then in a world of rapid change, in which men and nations must
learn to control themselves in their relations with others. This, to my mind,
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can only be done through institutions: and it is this need for common institutions that we have learnt in Europe since the war. . . . The need [of creating
the European Community] was political as well as economic. The Europeans
had to overcome the mistrust born of centuries of feuds and wars. The governments and peoples of Europe still thought in the old terms of victors and vanquished. Yet, if a basis for peace in the world was to be established, these
notions had to be eliminated. Here again, one had to go beyond the nation
and the conception of national interest as an end in itself (Monnet, 1994:
189).
I am the first to say that on many great issues the countries of Europe should
try to speak with a single voice. I want to see us work more closely on the
things we can do better together than alone. Europe is stronger when we do
so, whether it be in trade, defence, or in relations with the rest of the world.
But working more closely together does not require power to be centralised
in Brussels or decisions to be taken by appointed bureaucracy. . . . We have
not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see
them reimposed at a European level, with a European superstate exercising
a new dominance from Brussels (Thatcher, 1994: 48).
In our survey we include only parties that gained representation in at least
one of the last two parliaments (lower houses). Thus, for the Czech Republic,
we cover the parties in the period since 1996, in Hungary and Slovakia since
1994, and in Poland since 1997. For more detailed information on the party
positions presented, see Kopeck and Ue (2002) on the Czech Republic,
Batory (2001, 2000) and Navracsics (1997) on Hungary, Millard (1999) and
Szczerbiak (2001a, 2001b) on Poland, and Henderson (2001) and Kopeck and
Ue (2002) on Slovakia.
Unless stated otherwise, the opinion data used come from the Central
European Opinion Research Group (CEORG), accessible at www.ceorgeurope.org.
According to a poll by the MVK polling agency, in July 2001, Slovakias potential accession to the EU is supported by a staggering 76.6% of respondents.
Though one cannot simply equate the two polls, there is little doubt that
support for EU membership in Slovakia is still well above the 50% hurdle:
indeed, according to the Eurobarometer survey, 66% of Slovaks would
endorse EU membership. Also note that Eurobarometer indicates that 70% of
Hungarians would vote yes in the referendum the highest percentage
among all four ECE countries.
The ZChN (Christian National Alliance) is a good example of Euroscepticism
related to Church-associated fundamentalism within the AWS (and the
AWSP). It states: we do not want to be modern, European, and civilized but
traditional, national, Catholic (in Millard, 1999: 210). At the same time, the
party wants to be a part of a Europe of Nations, through which it wants to
achieve a European re-Christianization. The ZChN nevertheless declared
support for Polish EU membership, but with several (absurd) conditions
attached (Szczerbiak, 2001b).
The newly formed Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU), of the
current prime minister, Mikul Dzurinda, a merger of the DU and parts of
the KDH, is also a Euroenthusiast party. Two other new (extra-parliamentary)
parties that feature prominently in opinion polls, Smer (Direction), which split
from the SDL, and the ANO (Alliance for the New Citizen), of TV Markza
owner Pavol Rusko, also take a Euroenthusiast position.
10 Note that Munkaspart (Workers Party), the orthodox communist party in
Hungary, is a Euroreject party as well (see Batory, 2000).
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