This article is about opposition to or scepticism on the European Union. For negative sentiment towards people of European descent, seeAnti-Europeanism.
Eurobarometer surveys of EU citizens show that trust in the EU and its institutions declined strongly from 2007 to 2015.[19] In that period, it was consistently below 50%.[20] A 2009 survey showed that support for EU membership was lowest in theUnited Kingdom (UK),Latvia, andHungary.[21] By 2016, the countries viewing the EU most unfavourably were the UK,Greece,France, andSpain.[22] The2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum resulted in a 51.9% vote in favour of leaving the EU (Brexit), a decision that came into effect on 31 January 2020.
Since 2015, trust in the EU has risen in most EU countries as a result of falling unemployment rates and the end of the migrant crisis.[23] A post-2019 election Eurobarometer survey showed that 68% of citizens support the EU, the highest level since 1983; however, sentiment that things are not going in the right direction in the EU had increased to 50%.[24] Trust in the EU had increased significantly at the beginning of theCOVID-19 pandemic with levels varying across member states.[25][26]
In March 2025, support for the European Union reached an all-time high among citizens of EU members states.[27] A Eurobarometer poll conducted in January and February found that 74% of EU citizens believe their country’s membership in the bloc is beneficial, the highest level recorded since the question was first introduced in 1983.[28] The decline in Euroscepticism has been attributed to growing security concerns amid ongoing geopolitical instability, including the continuation ofRussia’s invasion of Ukraine and renewed transatlantic tensions underDonald Trump, who has been critical ofNATO and the European Union.[27][29]
There can be considered to be several different types of Eurosceptic thought, which differ in the extent to which adherents reject integration between member states of theEU and in their reasons for doing so. Aleks Szczerbiak and Paul Taggart described two of these as hard and soft Euroscepticism.[30][31][32][33][34] At the same time, some scholars have said that there is no clear line between the presumed hard and soft Euroscepticism.[citation needed]Cas Mudde and Petr Kopecky have said that if the demarcation line is the number of and which policies a party opposes, then the question arises of how many must a party oppose and which ones should a party oppose that makes them hard Eurosceptic instead of soft.[35]
According to Taggart and Szczerbiak, hard Euroscepticism, or anti-EU-ism,[30][31][32][33][34] is "a principled opposition to the EU and European integration and therefore can be seen in parties who think that their countries should withdraw from membership, or whose policies towards the EU are tantamount to being opposed to the whole project of European integration as it is currently conceived".[33] TheEurope of Freedom and Direct Democracy group in theEuropean Parliament (2014–2019) displayed hard Euroscepticism, but following the 2019 EU elections the group was disbanded due to too few members, as its largest member, the BritishBrexit Party, withdrew ahead of the United Kingdom's formal exit from the EU.[36]
Some hard Eurosceptics regard their position as pragmatic rather than in principle. Additionally,Tony Benn, a left-wingLabour Party MP who fought againstEuropean integration in 1975 by opposing membership of theEuropean Communities inthat year's referendum on the issue, emphasised his opposition toxenophobia and his support ofdemocracy, saying: "My view about the European Union has always been not that I am hostile to foreigners, but that I am in favour of democracy. ... I think they're building an empire there, they want us to be a part of their empire and I don't want that."[37]
The Czech presidentVáclav Klaus rejected the termEuroscepticism for its purported negative undertones, saying at a meeting in April 2012 that the expressions for a Eurosceptic and their opponent should be "a Euro-realist" and someone who is "Euro-naïve", respectively.[38]François Asselineau of the FrenchPopular Republican Union has criticised the use of the term 'sceptic' to describe hard Eurosceptics, and would rather advocate the use of the term "Euro opponent".[39] He believes the use of the term 'sceptic' for soft Eurosceptics to be correct, since other Eurosceptic parties in France are "merely criticising" the EU without taking into account the fact that theTreaty of Rome can be modified only with a unanimous agreement of all the EU member states, something he considers impossible to achieve.[40]
Soft Euroscepticism, also known asEurorealism, reflects a support for the existence of, and membership of, a form of EU but with opposition to specific EU policies, or in Taggart's and Szczerbiak's words, "where there is NOT a principled objection to European integration or EU membership but where concerns on one (or a number) of policy areas lead to the expression of qualified opposition to the EU, or where there is a sense that 'national interest' is currently at odds with the EU's trajectory."[41]
Both theEuropean Conservatives and Reformists Group, dominated by the right-wing Polish partyLaw and Justice, andThe Left Group, which is an alliance of the left-wing parties in the European Parliament, display soft Euroscepticism. The European Conservatives and Reformist Group does not itself use the descriptions Euroscepticism or soft Euroscepticism and instead describes its position as one of Eurorealism, a distinction described by Leruth as being one that is "quite subtle but should not be ignored" given the association of the term Euroscepticism with "European disintegration". Leruth describes Eurorealism as "a pragmatic, anti-federalist, and flexible vision of European integration where the principle of subsidiarity prevails, aiming to reform the current institutional framework to extend the role of national parliaments in the decision-making process." Steven states that "Eurorealism is a form of conservativism, first and foremost, rather than a form or Euroscepticism, even if it obviously very much also has the 'soft' Eurosceptic tendencies which are present in a number of ECR member parties."[42][43][44][45][46][47]
Some scholars consider the gradual difference in terminology between hard and soft Euroscepticism inadequate to accommodate the large differences in terms of political agenda;hard Euroscepticism has also been referred to asEurophobia as opposed to mereEuroscepticism.[49] Other alternative names for hard and soft Euroscepticism includewithdrawalist andreformist, respectively.[50]
Percentage responding that their country on balance benefited from being a member of the EU atEurobarometer 2023:[51]
91–100%
81–90%
71–80%
61–70%
51–60%
A survey in November 2015[update], conducted byTNS Opinion and Social on behalf of theEuropean Commission, showed that, across the EU as a whole, those with a positive image of the EU were down from a high of 52% in 2007 to 37% in autumn 2015; this compares with 23% with a negative image of the EU, and 38% with a neutral image.[52] About 43% of Europeans thought things were "going in the wrong direction" in the EU, compared with 23% who thought things were going "in the right direction" (11% "don't know").[53] About 32% of EU citizens tend to trust the EU as an institution, and about 55% do not tend to trust it (13% "don't know").[19] Distrust of the EU was highest inGreece (81%),Cyprus (72%),Austria (65%),France (65%), theUnited Kingdom (UK) and theCzech Republic (both 63%). Overall, more respondents distrusted their own government (66%) than they distrusted the EU (55%). Distrust of national government was highest in Greece (82%),Slovenia (80%),Portugal (79%), Cyprus (76%), and France (76%).[54]
A Eurobarometer survey carried out four days prior to and six days after the2016 United States presidential election revealed that the surprise victory ofDonald Trump caused an increase in the popularity of the EU in Europe. The increase was strongest among the political right and among respondents who perceived their country as economically struggling.[55]
A survey carried out in April 2018 for the European Parliament by Kantar Public consulting found that support for the EU was "the highest score ever measured since 1983". Support for the EU was up in 26 out of 28 EU countries, the exceptions being Germany and the UK, where support had dropped by about 2% since the previous survey. Almost half (48%) of the 27,601 EU citizens surveyed agreed that their voice counted in the EU, up from 37% in 2016, whereas 46% disagreed with this statement. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents felt that their country had benefited from EU membership and 60% said that being part of the bloc was a good thing, as opposed to 12% who felt the opposite. At the height of the EU's financial and economic crises in 2011, just 47% had been of the view that EU membership was a good thing. Support for EU membership was greatest inMalta (93%),Ireland (91%),Lithuania (90%),Poland (88%),Luxembourg (88%),Estonia (86%), andDenmark (84%), and lowest inGreece (57%),Bulgaria (57%),Cyprus (56%),Austria (54%), theUnited Kingdom (53%), andItaly (44%).[56]
When asked which issues should be a priority for the European Parliament, survey respondents picked terrorism as the most pressing topic of discussion, ahead of youth unemployment and immigration. Not all countries shared the same priorities. Immigration topped the list in Italy (66% of citizens surveyed considered it a priority issue), Malta (65%), andHungary (62%) but fighting youth unemployment and support for economic growth were top concerns inSpain, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, andCroatia. Social protection of citizens was the top concern for Dutch, Swedish, and Danish respondents.[56]
The April 2019Eurobarometer showed that despite the challenges of the past years, and in cases such as the ongoing debate surrounding Brexit, possibly even because of it, the European sense of togetherness had not weakened, with 68% of respondents across the EU27 believing that their countries have benefited from being part of the EU, a historically high level since 1983. On the other hand, more Europeans (27%) were uncertain and saw the EU as "neither a good thing nor a bad thing", an increase in 19 countries. Despite the overall positive attitude towards the EU but in line with the uncertainty expressed by a growing number of Europeans, the feeling that things were not going in the right direction in both the EU and in their own countries had increased to 50% on EU average since September 2018.[24]
The Eurobarometer 93.1 survey was in the field across Europe when theEuropean Council summit reached political agreement on a pandemic economic recovery fund (later namedNext Generation EU) on 21 July 2020. A comparison of Eurobarometer responses gathered before this seminal decision and interviews conducted shortly thereafter indicates that the European Council's endorsement of pandemic economic relief increased popular support of COVID-19 economic recovery aid - but only among Europeans who view EU decisionmakers as trustworthy.[57]
A study analysed voting records of the Fifth European Parliament and ranked groups, concluding:[59] "Towards the top of the figure are the more pro-European parties (PES, EPP-ED, and ALDE), whereas towards the bottom of the figure are the more anti-European parties (EUL/NGL, G/EFA, UEN and EDD)."
The main goal of the ID group was to reject the proposedTreaty establishing a constitution for Europe. Some delegations within the group, notably that from UKIP, also advocated the complete withdrawal of their country from the EU, while others only wished to limit further European integration.
Theelections of 2009 saw a significant fall in support in some areas for Eurosceptic parties, with all such MEPs from Poland, Denmark and Sweden losing their seats. In the UK, the Eurosceptic UKIP achieved second place in the election, finishing ahead of the governing Labour Party, and theBritish National Party (BNP) won its first-ever two MEPs. Although new members joined the ID group from Greece and theNetherlands, it was unclear whether the group would reform in the new parliament.[citation needed]
Theelections of 2014 saw a big anti-establishment vote in favour of Eurosceptic parties, which took around a quarter of the seats available. Those that came first their national elections included: UKIP in the UK (the first time since 1906 that a party other than Labour or the Conservatives had won a national vote), theNational Front in France, thePeople's Party in Denmark andSyriza in Greece. Second places were taken bySinn Féin in Ireland and theFive Star Movement in Italy.Herman Van Rompuy, thePresident of the European Council, agreed following the election to re-evaluate the economic area's agenda and to launch consultations on future policy areas with the 28 member states.[citation needed]
Theelections of 2019 saw the centre-left and centre-right parties suffer significant losses including losing their overall majority, whilegreen,pro-EU liberal, and some Eurosceptic right wing parties saw significant gains.[61][62] Those that came first in their national elections included: theBrexit Party in the UK (which was only launched on 12 April 2019 by former UKIP leaderNigel Farage), theNational Rally of France (formerly the National Front party until June 2018),Fidesz in Hungary,Lega in Italy, andLaw and Justice in Poland. There were also notable falls in support for theDanish People's Party (previously topped the 2014 European election). WhilstVox got elected with 3 seats, Spain's first Eurosceptic party and Belgium'sVlaams Belang rallied to gain second place after its poor 2014 result.
TheFreedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), established in 1956, is a right-wing populist party that mainly attracts support from young people and workers.[65] In 1989, it changed its stance over the EU to Euroscepticism. It opposed Austria joining the EU in 1994, and opposed the introduction of theeuro in 1998. The party would like to leave the EU if it threatens to develop intoa country, or ifTurkey joins. The FPÖ received 20–27% of the national vote in the 1990s, and more recently received 18% in 2008. Following the2017 Austrian legislative election, it has 51/183 National Council seats, 16/62 Federal Council seats, and 4/19 European Parliament seats.
TheBündnis Zukunft Österreich (BZÖ), established in 2005, is a socially conservative party that has always held Eurosceptic elements. In 2011 the party openly supported leaving theeurozone, and in 2012 it announced that it supported a full withdrawal from the European Union.[66] The party has also called upon a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.[67] In polls it generally received around 10–15%, although in one state it did receive 45% of the vote in 2009. Since the 2017 election, it has 0/183 National Council seats, 0/62 Federal Council seats, and 0/19 European Parliament seats.
Team Stronach, established in 2012, has campaigned to reform the European Union, as well as to replace the euro with an Austrian Euro. In 2012, it regularly received 8–10% support in national polls.[68] Politicians from many different parties (including the Social Democratic Party and the BZÖ) as well as previous independents switched their allegiances to the new party upon creation.[69][70] In two local elections in March 2013, it won 11% of the vote inCarinthia, and 10% of the vote inLower Austria. It dissolved in 2017.
Ewald Stadler, a former member of FPÖ (and later of BZÖ) was very Eurosceptic, but in 2011 became a member of the European Parliament due to the Lisbon Treaty. Before Stadler accepted the seat, this led to heavy critics by Jörg Leichtfried (SPÖ) "Stadler wants to just rescue his political career" because Stadler before mentioned he would never accept a seat as MEP if this was only due to the Lisbon Treaty.[71] On 23 December 2013 he founded a conservative and Eurosceptic party calledThe Reform Conservatives, although it has been inactive since June 2016.
In the2019 European Parliament election, the FPÖ came 3rd with 17.2% of the vote which was only slightly down on 2014 despite a scandal allegedly promising public contracts to a woman posing as a Russian backer. This precipitated the collapse of the ruling coalition and a new election being called.[73][74]
According toEurostat, in the fall of 2018, 44% of Belgians stated that they did not trust theEuropean Union.[75] The main Eurosceptic party inBelgium is thefar-rightVlaams Belang which is active in theDutch-speaking part of Belgium. However, theleft-wingPTB-PVDA also opposes the EU on many issues, primarilyausterity and social policy,[76] while defending a fundamental reform of the existing European framework instead of an exit from it.[77]
In the2014 European Parliament election, Vlaams Belang lost over half of its previous vote share, polling 4.3% (down 5.5%) and losing 1 of its 2 members of the European Parliament.[78] Despite the presence of Eurosceptic parties in Belgium, their weight is relatively low, as Belgium is predominantlyEuropeanist.[75][79]
TheNew Flemish Alliance (N-VA) is a soft Eurosceptic party in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Before 2010, the N-VA waspro-European and supported the idea of a democratic European confederation, but has since altered this policy to a more sceptical stance on further European integration and now calls for more democratic transparency within the EU, changes to the EU's common asylum policy and economic reforms to theEurozone. The N-VA has obtained 26.8% of the votes or 4 seats of the Dutch-language college out of 12 (21 MEPs for Belgium) in the2014 European Parliament election. In April 2019, it stood in theEuropean Conservatives and Reformists Group of the European Parliament, and can be considered a moderate Eurosceptic party.
In the French-speaking part of Belgium (Walloons), there are four parties that are Eurosceptic to a varying extent. The first one is theNation Movement, a far-right party which was a member of theAlliance for Peace and Freedom in the European Parliament. The second one is theNational Front, also a far-right party which criticizes the European bureaucracy, intends to guarantee and preserve national independence and freedom in a liberated Europe; it also reaffirms the Christian roots of Europe. The third one is thePeople's Party, classified as right or extreme right. In its program[82] for the2019 European elections, the People's Party proposed to abolish theEuropean Commission, reduce the number of European parliamentarians and fight against the worker-posted directive.[83] For this party, the EU must be led by a president elected byuniversal suffrage with clear but limited competences. It also wants to renegotiate the European Union treaties, restrict thejudicial activism of theEuropean Court of Human Rights. It declares itself against theGlobal Compact for Migration. The last one is theParti libertarien [fr]. In early 2019, the party aims to reduce the powers of the European Commission, to abolish theCommon Agricultural Policy, to abandon common defense projects, to simplify the exit procedure of theEuropean Union, to rejectfederalism and to forbid the European Union to direct economic, fiscal or social policy,[84]
Finally, theWorkers' Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) is aMarxist electoral and unitary party. It intends to revise the European treaties considered tooneoliberal for their enforcement of austerity measures.[77] One of the Party's slogans is "The left that stings, against the Europe of money".[85] The PTB-PVDA politicianMarc Botenga (who went on to become the party's firstMEP in 2019[86]) published an extensive piece on EU politics in the magazineLava [nl] in 2018. In it, Botenga criticized the EU structures, noting that the scope for economicallyprogressive politics in the EU was limited due to its budget rules and pro-corporate frameworks. However, because the European market had already become integrated to a high extent, he also rejected an outright exit from the EU as he did not believe this would lead either to true sovereignty or to short-term economic benefits (an argument for which he citedYanis Varoufakis). Instead of retreating intonationalism, Botenga argued thatorganized labour had to combat neoliberal policies on an EU-wide scale.[87]
Followers of Eurosceptic Attack tore down and trampled theEuropean flag on 3 March 2016 at a meeting of the party in the Bulgarian capitalSofia, dedicated to the commemoration of the 138th anniversary of theliberation of Bulgaria from theOttoman Empire.[89]
In the2019 European Parliament election, Bulgaria remained overwhelmingly pro-EU with the ruling centre-right Gerb party winning with 31%, against 26% for the socialist BSP.[90]
The onlyparliamentary party that is vocally Eurosceptic isThe Key of Croatia (formerly known as Human Shield) that won 5 out of 151 seats at the2016 parliamentary election. Their position is generally considered to waver between hard and soft Euroscepticism; it requests thorough reform of the EU so that all member states would be perfectly equal.
In the2019 European Parliament election, the Key of Croatia gained its first seat in the European Parliament with 6% of the vote putting it in 5th place.[93]
In the2019 European Parliament election, there was little change politically – the conservatives won narrowly, the ruling DISY taking two seats with 29%, followed by socialist AKEL (27.5%, two seats) with no seats taken by Eurosceptic parties.
In May 2010, the Czech presidentVáclav Klaus said that they "needn't hurry to enter the Eurozone".[96]
Petr Mach, an economist, a close associate of president Václav Klaus and a member of theCivic Democratic Party between 1997 and 2007, founded theFree Citizens Party in 2009. The party aims to mainly attract dissatisfied Civic Democratic Party voters.[97] At the time of theLisbon Treaty ratification, they were actively campaigning against it, supported by the president Vaclav Klaus, who demanded opt-outs such as were granted to the United Kingdom and Poland,[98][99][100] unlike the governing Civic Democratic Party, who endorsed it in theChamber of Deputies.[101] After the treaty has been ratified, Mach's party is in favour of withdrawing from the European Union completely.[102] In the2014 European Parliament election, the Free Citizens Party won one mandate and allied with UKIP in theEurope of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFD).
Pia Kjærsgaard, member (and former leader) of the hard Eurosceptic partyDanish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti), the fifth-largest represented in theDanish parliament and the fifth-most represented in the European Parliament
ThePeople's Movement against the EU only takes part in European Parliament elections and has one member in the European Parliament. The soft EuroscepticJune Movement, originally a split-off from the People's Movement against the EU, existed from 1992 to 2009.
In the DanishParliament, theRed-Green Alliance previously advocated withdrawal from the EU, but in March 2019, the party announced it would no longer campaign for a referendum to leave the EU, pointing toBrexit illustrating the need for clarity before withdrawal can be considered.[103] TheDanish People's Party also advocates withdrawal, but says it supports some EU structures such as theinternal market, and supported the EU-positiveLiberal-Conservative coalition between 2001 and 2011 and again from 2015 to 2019.
TheIndependence Party andCentre Party were against accession to the EU, but only the Independence Party still wants Estonia to withdraw from the EU. TheConservative People's Party (EKRE) also has some Eurosceptic policies and increased its vote share from 4% in 2014 to 13% in the 2019 European Elections winning one seat.[106]
The largest Eurosceptic party in Finland is theFinns Party. In theEuropean Parliament election, 2014, the Finns Party increased their vote share by 3% to 13%, adding a second MEP. With their 39 seats, the Finns Party are also the second-biggest party in the 200-seat FinnishEduskunta.[107]
In theEuropean Parliament election, 2019, the Finns Party increased their vote share slightly from 13% to 14% and retained their 2 seats.
In its latest party platform written in 2019, the Finns Party is strongly opposed to further EU integration. The party proposes introducing a parallel currency within Finland in tandem with the Euro in order to phase out Finnish membership of the Eurozone and argues that while Finland is needed in the short-term in the European Parliament to defend Finland's interests, the country should also enact policies to help gradually withdraw Finland from the EU.[108] During the2018 Finnish presidential election, the Finns Party candidateLaura Huhtasaari stated that her campaign would support exiting the EU.[109]
In France there are multiple parties that are Eurosceptic to different degrees, varying from advocating less EU intervention in national affairs, to advocating outright withdrawal from the EU and the Eurozone. These parties belong to all sides of the political spectrum, so the reasons for their Euroscepticism may differ. In the past many French people appeared to be uninterested in such matters, with only 40% of the French electorate voting in the2009 European Parliament elections.[110]
Right-wing Eurosceptic parties include theGaullistDebout la République, andMouvement pour la France, which was part ofLibertas, a pan-European Eurosceptic party.[111] In the2009 European Parliament elections, Debout la République received 1.8% of the national vote, and Libertas 4.8%. In a similar way to some moderate parties, the French right and far-right in general are naturally opposed to the EU, as they criticise France's loss of political and economic sovereignty to asupranational entity. Some of these hard Eurosceptic parties include thePopular Republican Union andThe Patriots and formerly theFront National (FN).[112] Popular Republican Union seek France's withdrawal from the EU and the euro as well as France's withdrawal from NATO. The FN received 33.9% of the votes in the2017 French presidential election, making it the largest Eurosceptic party in France. In June 2018, the National Front was renamed as National Rally (RN) and in 2019 dropped support for France leaving the European Union and the Eurozone from its manifesto, instead calling for "reform from within" the union.[113][114]
Eurosceptic parties on the left in France tend to criticise what they see as theneoliberal agenda of the EU, as well as the elements of its structure which are undemocratic and seen as top-down. These parties include theParti de Gauche and theFrench Communist Party, which formed theFront de Gauche for the 2009 European Parliament elections and received 6.3% of the votes. The leader of theLeft Front defends a complete reform of the Monetary Union, rather than the withdrawal of France from theEurozone.[115] Some of the major far-left Eurosceptic parties in France include theNew Anticapitalist Party[116] which received 4.8% andLutte Ouvrière[117] which received 1.2%. TheCitizen and Republican Movement, a left-wing Eurosceptic andsouverainist party, have not participated in any elections for the European Parliament.
In theEuropean Parliament election, 2014, theNational Front won the elections with 24.9% of the vote, a swing of 18.6%, winning 24 seats, up from 3 previously. The former French PresidentFrançois Hollande had called for the EU to be reformed and for a scaling back of its power.[118]
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2017)
"Referendum on saving the euro!" Poster from the party Alternative for Germany (AfD) regarding Germany's financial contributions during theEurozone crisis
TheAlternative for Germany (AfD) is Germany's largest Eurosceptic party.[119] It was elected into theGerman Parliament with 94 seats in September 2017.[120] Initially the AfD was a soft Eurosceptic party, that considered itself pro-Europe and pro-EU, but opposed the euro, which it believed had undermined European integration, and called for reforms to theEurozone.[121]
In theEuropean Parliament election, 2014, the Alternative for Germany came 5th with 7% of the vote, winning 7 seats and is a member of the Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists Group. The Alternative for Germany went on to take seats in three state legislatures in the Autumn of 2014.[122]
The party became purely Eurosceptic in 2015, when an internal split occurred, leading toFrauke Petry's leadership and a more hard-line approach to the European Union, including its calling for an end for GermanEurozone membership, withdrawal from EU common asylum policies and significantly reducing the power of the EU with some AfD members supporting a complete exit from the EU altogether.[123][124]
In theEuropean Parliament election, 2019, the Alternative for Germany increased their vote share from 7% and 7 seats to 11% and 11 seats.
In the2021 German Federal Election, AfD won 10.3% of the vote and 94 seats whereas in 2017, they received 12.6% of the vote and 83 seats; this meant they moved from third place to fifth place, falling behind theGreen Party andFDP, both of which had been less popular than the AfD in 2017. Despite their overall electoral decline, the AfD still emerged as the largest in the states ofSaxony andThuringia, and saw a strong performance ineastern Germany.[125]
Golden Dawn,Communist Party of Greece (KKE),Greek Solution,ANEL,Course of Freedom,Popular Unity, andLAOS have been the main Eurosceptic parties in Greece. According to theLondon School of Economics, Greece used to be the second most Eurosceptic country in the European Union, with 50% of Greeks thinking that their country has not benefited at all from the EU (only behind the UK). Meanwhile, 33% of Greeks viewed Greek membership in EU as a good thing, marginally ahead of the UK. 81% of Greeks felt that the EU was going in the wrong direction.[126] These figures represented a major increase in Euroscepticism in Greece since 2009.
In June 2012, the Eurosceptic parties in Greece that were represented in the parliament before the Election in January 2015 (ANEL, Golden Dawn, KKE) got 45.8% of the votes and 40.3% of the seats in the parliament. In thelegislative election of January 2015 thepro-European (left and right-wing) parties (ND,PASOK,Potami,KIDISO,EK andPrasinoi-DIMAR) got 43.3% of the votes. The Eurosceptic parties got 54.6%. The Eurosceptic left (KKE,ANTARSYA-MARS andKKE (M–L)/M–L KKE) got 42.6% of the votes and the Eurosceptic right (Golden Dawn,ANEL andLAOS) got 12.1% of the votes, with Syriza ahead with 36.3%. The Eurosceptic parties got 194 seats in the new parliament and the pro-EU parties got 106 seats.[127]
According to thepolls conducted in June and July 2015 (12 polls), the Eurosceptic left would get on average 48.0% (excluding extraparliamentary parties as ANTARSYA-MARS and KKE (m–l)/ML-KKE), the parliamentary pro-EU parties (Potami, New Democracy and PASOK) would get 33.8%, the extra-parliamentary (not represented in the Hellenic Parliament) pro-EU parties (KIDISO and EK) would get 4.4% and the Eurosceptic right would get 10.2% (excluding extraparliamentary parties, such asLAOS, not displayed on recent opinion polls). The soft Eurosceptic parties would get 42.3%, the hard Eurosceptic parties (includingKKE,ANEL andGolden Dawn) would get 15.9%, and the pro-EU parties (including extra-parliamentary parties displayed on opinion polls) would get 38.3% of the votes.[citation needed]
In theEuropean Parliament election, 2014,Syriza won the election with 26.6% of the vote (a swing of 21.9%) taking 6 seats (up 5), withGolden Dawn coming 3rd taking 3 seats, theCommunist Party taking 2 seats and theIndependent Greeks gaining their first ever seat. Syriza's leader Tsipras said he's not anti-European and does not want to leave the euro. According toThe Economist, Tsipras is willing to negotiate with Greece's European partners, and it is believed a Syriza victory could encourage radical leftist parties across Europe. Alexis Tsipras vowed to reverse many of the austerity measures adopted by Greece since a series of bailouts began in 2010, at odds with the Eurogroup's positions.[128][129]The government coalition in Greece was composed by Syriza andANEL (right-wing hard Eurosceptic party, led byPanos Kammenos, who is the current Minister of Defence).
Euroscepticism has softened in Greece as the economy improved. According to a research in early 2018, 68% of Greeks judge as positive the participation of Greece in the EU (instead of 53.5% in 2017).[130]
In theEuropean Parliament election, 2019, the New Democracy movement, beat the ruling left-wing Syriza formation with 33.1% and 23.8% of the vote respectively, maintaining Syriza's 6 seats and prompting the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to call alegislative election on 7 July 2019. In this election, which was won by ND, the pro-European parties (ND, SYRIZA, KINAL, MeRA25, and the extra-parliamentary Union of Centrists and Recreate Greece) got 84.9% of the vote and the Eurosceptic parties (KKE, Greek Solution, the extraparliamentary Golden Dawn and a host of other small mainly left-wing parties) got 15.1%. That drastic change in the balance is mostly the result of SYRIZA abandoning Euroscepticism.[citation needed]
In 2015, 39% of the Hungarian population had a positive image of the EU, 20% had a negative image, and 40% neutral (1% "Don't know").[52]
In the2014 Hungarian parliamentary election, Fidesz got 44.5% of the votes, Jobbik got 20.5% of the votes and the communistHungarian Workers' Party got 0.6% of the votes. Thus at the time, Eurosceptic parties in Hungary obtained 65.7% of the votes, one of the highest figures in Europe.
In theEuropean Parliament election, 2019, Fidesz consolidated their position by increasing their vote share to 51.5% and adding a seat to take their tally to 13. Former Eurosceptic (now pro-European) Jobbik dropped to 6.3% of the votes, losing 2 of its 3 seats. TheMomentum Movement, a newly created pro-European party, came 3rd with 9.3% of the vote, with the strongly pro-EuropeanDemocratic Coalition coming second with 16.1% of the vote.Our Homeland Movement got 3.3% of the votes, gaining no seats.
Euroscepticism is a minority view inIreland, with opinion polls from 2016 to 2018 indicating growing support for EU membership, moving from 70% to 92% in that time.[133][134][135][136][137][138][139]
TheIrish people initially voted against ratifying the Nice and Lisbon Treaties. Following renegotiations, second referendums on both were passed with approximately 2:1 majorities in both cases.[140] Some commentators and smaller political groups questioned the validity of the Irish Government's decision to call second referendums.[141][142]
TheSocialist Party, aTrotskyist organisation, supports Ireland leaving the EU and supported theBrexit result.[147] It argues that the European Union is institutionally capitalist and neoliberal.[148] The Socialist Party campaigned against the Lisbon and Nice Treaties and favours the foundation of an alternative Socialist European Union.[149]
TheFive Star Movement (M5S), ananti-establishment movement founded by comedianBeppe Grillo, originally set itself out as a Eurosceptic party. The M5S received 25.5% of vote in the2013 general election, becoming the largest anti-establishment and Eurosceptic party in Europe. The party used to advocate a non-binding referendum on the withdrawal of Italy from theEurozone (but not from the European Union) and the return to thelira.[150] Since then, the party has toned down its eurosceptic rhetoric[151] and such policy was rejected in 2018,[152] and the M5S's leader has since stated that the "European Union is the Five Star Movement's home", clarifying that the party wants Italy to stay in the EU, even though it remains critical of some of its treaties.[153][154] The M5S's popular support is distributed all across Italy: in the2018 general election the party won 32.7% of the popular vote nationwide, and was particularly successful incentral andsouthern Italy.[155]
In the 2000s, theLabour Party (MLP/PL) was vehemently opposed toMalta entering the European Union. Instead of EU membership, the PL was in favour of a partnership with the EU in the broader context of theEuro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed).[178] After a long battle, a majority of the electorate voted to join the EU in the2003 referendum and theNationalist Party (PN) led byEddie Fenech Adami, which took a pro-European stance,[179] won thesubsequent election. This led Malta to become one of the states to enter the European Union on 1 May 2004.[178]
According to Mark Harwood, Euroscepticism in Malta has moved from being aleftist stance in the early 2000s, connected to opposition to the EU's forced adoption ofneoliberal policies such asausterity, towards a position that is more concerned with far-right talking points such asanti-immigrant sentiment in the 2010s.[184]
Historically, the Netherlands have been a very pro-European country, being one of the six founding members of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community in 1952, and campaigning with much effort to include the United Kingdom into the Community in the 1970s and others after that. It has become slightly more Eurosceptic in the 2000s,rejecting the European Constitution in 2005 and complaining about the relatively high financial investment into the Union or the democratic deficit amongst other issues.
A number of hard and soft eurosceptic parties have politicians elected to the Dutch House of Representatives and European Parliament which include:
The nationalistParty for Freedom (founded in 2006) is a hard-eurosceptic party and wants the Netherlands to leave the EU in its entirety, because it believes the EU is undemocratic, costs money and cannot close the borders for immigrants.[187]
The conservative-liberalJA21 party (founded in 2021 as a splinter from the FvD) is opposed to Dutch participation severalEuropean Union agreements, including its immigration and asylum policies, and believes Dutch identity and self-determination should be prioritized above the EU. It supports Dutch withdrawal from theEurozone and for the Netherlands to exit EU treaties it deems a threat to national sovereignty.[188]
TheSocialist Party believes the European Union has already brought Europe 50 years of peace and prosperity and argues that European co-operation is essential for tackling global problems like climate change and international crime. The SP opines that the current Union is dominated by the big businesses and the big countries, while the labour movement, consumer organisations and smaller companies are often left behind. "Neoliberal" measures have supposedly increased social inequality, and perhaps the Union is expanding too fast and taking on too much power in issues that should be dealt with on a national level.[189]
The conservative ProtestantReformed Political Party and theChristian Union favour co-operation within Europe, but reject a superstate, especially one that is dominated by Catholics, or that infringes on religious rights and/or privileges.
The pensioner's interest party50PLUS is moderately Eurosceptic.
The ecologistParty for the Animals favours European co-operation, but believes the current EU does not respect animal rights enough and should have a more active policy on environment protection.
The agrarian and rural interestsFarmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) was founded in 2019 and is a soft-eurosceptic party. It supports membership of the EU for economic and trade purposes, but argues the political power of the EU should be stripped back so the bloc is closer to the model of the former EEC, wants reforms made to the Eurozone and is against the EU becoming a superstate.[190]
A prominent former Eurosceptic party in the Netherlands was thePim Fortuyn List (LPF) established by politician and academicPim Fortuyn in 2002. The party campaigned to reduce Dutch financial contributions to the EU, was against Turkish membership and opposed what it saw as the excessive bureaucracy and threat to national sovereignty posed by the EU. During the2002 general election, the LPF polled in second place with 17% of the vote. Following the assassination of Fortuyn in the run-up to the election, support for the party declined soon after and it was disbanded in 2008 with many of its former supporters transferring to theParty for Freedom.
In 2015, it was reported that Euroscepticism was growing in Poland, which was thought to be due to the "economic crisis, concern over perceived interference from Brussels and migration".[citation needed] Polish presidentAndrzej Duda indicated that he wished for Poland to step back from further EU integration. He suggested that the country should "hold a referendum on joining the euro, resist further integration and fight the EU's green policies", despite getting the largest share of EU cash.[196]
In the2019 European Parliament election, the Law and Justice party won the largest number of seats, with a vote share increase up from 31.8% to 45.4%, increasing its seats from 19 to 27.[197]
"Trumna dla rybaków" ("Coffin for fishermen"). A sign visible on the sides of many Polish fishing boats. It depicts anobscene Slavic gesture. Polish fishermen protest against theEU's prohibition of cod fishing on Polish ships.
In 2019, the formerMEPStanisław Żółtek created a political party called PolEXIT, whose flagship ideology is Euroscepticism.[198] Its candidate forpresident of Poland in the2020 elections was the party's leader, Żółtek,[199] who got 45 419 votes (0.23%), ranking 7th out of 11 candidates and did not qualify to the second round.[200]
The main Eurosceptic parties in Portugal areChega, thePortuguese Communist Party (PCP), andLeft Bloc (BE). Opinion polling in Portugal in 2015 indicated that 48 per cent tended not to trust the EU,[19] while 79 per cent tended not to trust the Portuguese government (then led byPortugal Ahead).[54] Eurosceptic political parties hold a combined total of 23 seats out of 230 inPortugal's parliament (BE 5, PCP 6, PNR 0, CHEGA 12) and a combined total of 4 out of Portugal's 21 seats in the European Parliament (PCP 2, BE 2, PNR 0, CHEGA 0).
2019 saw the emergence of a new Eurosceptic political party,Chega, who gained a seat inthat year's legislative election. The party did not capture any seats in the 2019 European Parliament elections, but saw its leaderAndré Ventura finish third in the2021 presidential election, securing 11.9% of those voting.
Several parties espousing Eurosceptic views exist on the right, such as theNew Republic, theGreater Romania Party andNoua Dreaptă, but as of June 2020 none of these parties are represented in European Parliament. Euroscepticism is relatively unpopular in Romania, a 2015 survey found 65% of Romanians had a positive view of the country's EU membership.[201]
The process of Europeanization changed during the years inSpain. In 1986 Spain entered in theEuropean Community. Since then, Spain has been one of the most Europeanist countries. Therefore, when Spain became part of the European Community, the country had a strongpro-Europeanist feeling, according toEurobarometer, as it reflected a 60% of the population.[202][203] In Spain different reasons explain its entrance to the European Community. On the one hand, democracy has just been established in Spain afterFrancisco Franco dictatorship. On the other hand, the main objectives of Spain were to achieveeconomic development, and also a social modernization.[204] Spain was one of the few countries to vote Yes for the European Constitution in a referendum in February 2005, though by a lower margin inCatalonia and theBasque Country.[205]
In 2008, after thefinancial crisis reached Spain, the percentage of pro European persons started to fall. Thus, during the five years of the economic crisis, the Eurobarometer[206] shows how the trust in the EU increasingly fell in Spain, and the confidence of the Spanish citizens in the European Union decreased for more than 50 points. Spain became one of the most Eurosceptic countries among all European Union Members, as it happened in pretty much European countries, where nationalist and eurosceptic characterised parties became stronger.[207][208]
The historical two-parties system, composed by the conservativePartido Popular and the social-democraticPartido Socialista Obrero Español, collapsed. In the 2000s, the liberalCiudadanos and leftist partyPodemos became part of the political context, gaining electoral consensus, followed years later byultranationalist partyVox. The new parties were the effect of the disaffection of most Spaniards towards politics and politicians, that increased for several reasons: firstly,corruption at all political levels, reaching theRoyal Family too; secondly, recession intensified distrust of the population towards national government; thirdly, a phase of renovation of theautonomous regions which extended the distance between the National government and the Regional ones.[209]
Candidatura d'Unitat Popular, a left-wing to far-left political party with about 1,300 members advocates independence forCatalonia outside of the European Union. Up to 2014 European elections, there were no Spanish parties present in the Eurosceptic groups at the European Parliament. In the2015 Spanish general election,Podemos became the first left-wing Eurosceptic political party to win seats in theCongress of Deputies, obtaining 69 seats, and in the2019 Spanish general election,Vox became the first far-right Eurosceptic political party to win seats in theCongress of Deputies, obtaining 24 seats.
TheLeft Party of Sweden is against accession to the eurozone and previously wanted Sweden to leave the European Union until 2019.[210][211] The new party program, adapted in 2024, is highly EU-critical but states that an EU-withdrawal is only a "last option".[212] Their youth organizationYoung Left is still campaigning for Sweden to leave the EU.[213]
The nationalist andright-wing populist partySweden Democrats (SD) support closer political, economic and military cooperation with neighboring Nordic and certain Northern European countries, but strongly oppose further EU integration and further transfers of Swedish sovereignty to the EU as a whole. The party is also against Swedish accession to the eurozone, the creation of a combined EU military budget and want to renegotiate Swedish membership of theSchengen Agreement. The SD also want a constitutional amendment to require that all EU treaties must be voted on by the Swedish public first and that if the EU cannot be reformed and assumes more power at the expense of national sovereignty Sweden must exit the bloc.[214]
TheJune List, a Eurosceptic list consisting of members from both the political right and left won three seats in the 2004 Elections to the European Parliament and sat in the EU-criticalIND/DEM group in the European Parliament. The movementFolkrörelsen Nej till EU [sv] favours a withdrawal from the EU.
Around 75% of theRiksdag members represent parties that officially supports the Sweden membership.
In winter 2019–2020, in connection with the request from "poor" member countries of much higher membership fees for "rich" member countries, for the reason of keeping support levels so "poor" countries would not suffer fromBrexit, where a "rich" country left the union in part due to high membership fees, a media and social media debate for a "Swexit" increased.[215] This was still rejected by parties representing a majority of the parliament, with theCOVID-19 pandemic quickly taking over the debate.
Despite an uncritical attitude towards the EU informed by a strong Europeanizing ideology as the consequence of a lack of coherent policy agendas from local political actors,[217] Euroscepticism exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. An example is theAlliance of Independent Social Democrats is a Bosnian Serb political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Founded in 1996, it is the governing party in Bosnia and Herzegovina's entity calledRepublika Srpska, with its leader beingMilorad Dodik.[218]
Georgian March is the main Eurosceptic party inGeorgia. The party supports a slight distancing of Georgia from the West, as well as rejecting the country's entrance intoNATO.[219][220]
In March 2022, Georgia submitted a formal application for membership of the EU.[221]
The three main Eurosceptic parties in Iceland are theIndependence Party,Left-Green Movement and theProgressive Party. The Independence Party and the Progressive Party won theparliamentary election in April 2013 and they have halted the current negotiations with the European Union regarding Icelandic membership and tabled a parliamentary resolution on 21 February 2014 to withdraw the application completely.[222][223]
In 2017, Iceland'snewly elected government announced that it would hold a vote in parliament on whether to hold a referendum on resuming EU membership negotiations.[224][225] In November 2017 that government was replaced by a coalition of the Independence Party, the Left Green Movement and the Progressive Party; all of whom oppose membership. Only 11 out of 63 MPs are in favour of EU membership.[226]
The right-wingDemocratic Front alliance are the main moderate eurosceptic subject in theParliament of Montenegro, although its initially declaratively supported country's bid for accession to theEuropean Union, all other parliamentary subjects officially advocates Montenegrin access to EU. The only parties that advocates Montenegro's rejecting the European integration are the extra-parliamentary right-wing populist to far-right parties, such asTrue Montenegro,Party of Serb Radicals,Democratic Party of Unity and theSerb List, all four are known for their close cooperation with the parliamentary Democratic Front.
Norway has rejected EU membership in two referendums,1972 and1994. TheCentre Party,Christian Democratic Party,Socialist Left Party andLiberal Party were against EU membership in both referendums. The Liberal Party was particularly divided on the issue, and a large pro-EEC minority split off from the party before the 1972 referendum. In 2020, the Liberal Party officially reversed its position and since then, supports Norwegian EU membership.[227]
Among the established political parties of Norway, the Centre Party, Socialist Left Party, andRed Party are also against Norway's current membership of theEuropean Economic Area.[228] In addition, the libertarianCapitalist Party and Christian-conservativeThe Christians, both of whom have never held a seat in the Norwegian parliament, are also against Norway's membership in the EEA.
Following theannexation of Crimea, the European Union issued sanctions on the Russian Federation in response to what it regards as an "illegal" annexation and "deliberate destabilisation" of a neighbouring sovereign country.[229] In response to this,Alexey Borodavkin – Russia's permanent representative with the UN – said "The EU is committing a direct violation of human rights by its actions against Russia. The unilateral sanctions introduced against us are not only illegitimate according to international law, they also undermine Russian citizens' freedom of travel, freedom of development, freedom of work and others".[citation needed] In the same year, Russian presidentVladimir Putin said: "What are the so-called European values? Maintaining the coup, the armed seizure of power and the suppression of dissent with the help of the armed forces?"[230]
A February 2014 poll conducted by theLevada Center, Russia's largest independent polling organization, found that nearly 80% of Russian respondents had a "good" impression of the EU. This changed dramatically in 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, resulting in 70% taking a hostile view of the EU compared to 20% viewing it positively.[231]
A Levada poll released in August 2018 found that 68% of Russians polled believe that Russia needs to dramatically improve relations with Western countries. 42% of Russian respondents said they had a positive view of the EU, up from 28% in May 2018.[232]
In Serbia, political parties with eurosceptic views tend to be right-orientated. The most notable examples are theultranationalistSerbian Radical Party (SRS) which since its inception has opposed entering the European Union[236] and theright-wing populistDveri.[237] Political parties such as theDemocratic Party of Serbia (DSS) hadpro-Western views and was initially supportive of the accession into the European Union but under the late 2000s leadership ofVojislav Koštunica they turned eurosceptic,[238] and theEnough is Enough (DJB) political party, initially a liberal centrist party that also supported the accession turned towards the right-wing eurosceptic position shortly after 2018.[239]
Historically, theSocialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and theYugoslav Left (JUL) were the only two left-leaning political parties that imposed eurosceptic and anti-Western views. The ruling coalition in Serbia,Serbia Must Not Stop, which is predominantly pro-European orientated is also composed of two minor eurosceptic parties, the right-wingSerbian People's Party[240] that advocates closer ties to Russia,[241] and the left-leaningMovement of Socialists which was formed as the eurosceptic split from SPS in the 2000s.
Switzerland has long been known forits neutrality in international politics. Swiss voters rejectedEEA membershipin 1992, and EU membershipin 2001. Despite the passing of several referendums calling for closer relations betweenSwitzerland and the European Union such as the adoption of bilateral treaties and the joining of theSchengen Area, a second referendum of the joining of the EEA or the EU is not expected,[242] and the general public remains opposed to joining.[243]
Regionally, the German-speaking majority as well as the Italian-speaking areas are the most Eurosceptic, whileFrench-speaking Switzerland tends to be more pro-European integration. In the 2001 referendum, the majority of French-speakers voted against EU membership.[citation needed] According to a 2016 survey conducted by M.I.S Trend and published inL'Hebdo, 69 percent of the Swiss population supports systematic border controls, and 53 percent want restrictions on the EU accord of the free movements of peoples and 14 percent want it completely abolished.[246] 54% of the Swiss population said that if necessary, they would ultimately keep the freedom of movement of people's accord.[246]
The two main Eurosceptic parties are the far-right ultranationalist,Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which secured 11.1% of votes, and 49 seats in theParliament at thelast election, and theFelicity Party (Saadet Partisi), a far-rightSunni Islamist party, which has no seats in the Parliament, as it only secured 0.7% of the votes in the last election, far below the 10% threshold necessary to be represented in the Parliament.
Many left-wing nationalist and far-left parties hold no seats at parliament but they control many activist and student movements in Turkey. ThePatriotic Party (formerly called Workers' Party) consider the European Union as a front-runner of global imperialism.[247][248]
The far-right Ukrainian groupRight Sector opposes joining the European Union. It regards the EU as an "oppressor" of European nations.[250]
In the 2019 parliamentary election theOpposition Platform – For Life won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and 6 constituency seats.[251]
The leader of theParty of Shariy Anatoly Shariy is one of the closest associates ofViktor Medvedchuk, whom Ukraine's special services suspect of financing terrorism.[252]
The European Union, and Britain's place in relation to it, is one of the primary issues today dividing opinion among the British public, political parties, media and civil society.[253]
Euroscepticism has been an element in British politics ever since the inception of theEuropean Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor to the EU, and its salience as an issue has fluctuated widely over the years. TheEuropean Communities membership referendum of 1975 took place in the context of Conservative and Liberal parties which were generally in favour of membership (in the 1971 House of Commons vote on whether the UK should join the European Economic Community, only 39 of the then 330 Conservative MPs had been opposed to membership[254][255]), and a Labour party which was sharply divided. After the referendum, which gave a strong assent to continued membership, Euroscepticism was a strand of opinion characteristic of the Labour party; at the1983 general election, for example, Labour campaigned on a promise to withdraw from the EEC.[256] This opposition to membership faded quickly after the election ofNeil Kinnock as leader of the party, and Euroscepticism gradually came to be less popular on the left of politics than on the right - though left-wing opposition to membership continues to this day. Current and recent supporters on the left of British politics includeFrank Field,Graham Stringer,Ian Austin,John Mann,Tom Harris,Gisela Stuart,Austin Mitchell,Kate Hoey andGeorge Galloway.[257]
WhenMargaret Thatcher came into power as the Prime Minister in 1979, she was as strongly in favour of membership as most Conservative MPs, having campaigned for "yes" in the 1975 referendum. By the time she left office, however, she had developed what at the time was a strongly Eurosceptic stance; she has been called the "spiritual mother"[258] of Euroscepticism. She never argued for secession while Prime Minister, envisioning continued membership of a less integrationist EEC, and became one of the most significant Eurosceptic voices in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, influencing the Conservatives’ view on the EU. In 2009 the Conservative Party actively campaigned against theLisbon Treaty, which it believed would give away too much sovereignty to Brussels.Shadow Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague stated that, should the treaty be in force by the time of an incoming Conservative government, he would "not let matters rest there".[259]
The right-wingUK Independence Party (UKIP) was set up for the specific purpose of advocating for the UK unilaterallyseceding the European Union (Brexit) from its foundation in 1993.[260] This party initially had very little support from the UK population as a whole. It was initially eclipsed by theReferendum Party, which fought the 1997 general election on the single issue of a referendum to leave the EU. The party's main success was found in elections to the European Parliament, where they experienced a continuous rise in their support from1999, when they came fourth and won their first seats. In2004 they came third, becoming the first "small" party to overtake the Liberals in a national vote since Labour in the 1920s. In2009 UKIP came second, and then,in 2014, they topped the poll, pushing the Conservatives into third for the first time in their history. UKIP also had some strong support locally in solidly working class areas, with 163 councillors elected to local authorities and gaining overall control in 2015 ofThanet District Council.[261]
However, UKIP — like most small parties in the UK — found it almost impossible to break into Westminster politics, only ever achieving one elected MP, in 2015.[262] Accordingly, after theinconclusive general election result of 2010, resulting in ahung Parliament, the issue of EU membership remained low on the political priority agenda at Westminster — broadly speaking a non-issue. This changed with UKIP's victory in the2014 European Parliament election, in the wake of which two Conservative MPs defected to UKIP.[263] The party with the largest number of seats in the 2010 Parliament wasthe Conservatives, which was firstly deeply divided on the issue, being led by a pro-European leadership on the whole, but with a large number of very vociferous Euroscepticbackbenchers, and secondly concerned at UKIP's possible electoral threat to the party at the following election. The Conservative leaderDavid Cameron promised a referendum on EU membership in the party's2015 general election manifesto.
By 2015, support for the Liberal Democrats had shrunk considerably, a phenomenon widely attributed to a policy U-turn onuniversity tuition fees.[264] In theelection, the Lib Dem vote collapsed, leading to an outright Conservative victory, to the surprise of many, as national polling had consistently predicted another hung Parliament. This majority meant that David Cameron's pledge now had to be fulfilled. In an effort to reduce Euroscepticism, Cameron sought and gained from the EU arenegotiation of some of the terms of Britain's EU membership, to a mixed response from the media and his party.[265][266]
For the 23 June 2016referendum on the EU membership, whilst the Conservatives had no official political policy position either way, its leader Cameron was avowedly in favour of remaining in the EU — though with the renegotiation of the terms of membership little political mileage was gained — and the party remained profoundly split, as it had been for many years.[267][268]
Labour Party policy officially supported remaining in the EU, although with long-standing EuroscepticJeremy Corbyn party leader, he and hisMomentum supporters gave a lacklustre defence against secession. Since first being elected in 1984 as a stalwart adherent of EuroscepticTony Benn on the left wing of the party, Corbin had personally advocated withdrawal throughout his terms as a Labour MP, so he suggested early on in the campaign that he would willingly consider withdrawal contrary to official party policy.[269][270] TheLiberal Democrats were the most adamantly pro-EU of the main parties, and since the referendum, pro-Europeanism has been their main policy.[271]
On 12 April 2019, a new Eurosceptic party, theBrexit Party, was officially launched by the formerUKIP leaderNigel Farage, to use the2019 European Parliament election to put pressure on a Conservative government perceived to be failing to pursue Brexit with adequate enthusiasm or success.[274] In the event, although overall pro-EU parties score a similar share of the vote to Eurosceptic parties, the Brexit Party topped the national poll by a large margin, with 32% of the vote. The Conservatives, on the other hand, suffered their lowest ever national vote share at 9%, with just 4 seats. This historic electoral defeat – along with an inability to navigate an agreeable route between a "soft" or "hard" Brexit in Parliament – led to Theresa May announcing the day after the election that she would step down as the Conservatives' leader and Prime Minister on 7 June.[274] After the elections, the EuroscepticBlue Collar Conservative grouping ofConservative MPs was formed.[275]
The Conservatives' resounding defeat led them to elect a new leader who might gain votes back from the Brexit Party, by pursuing a "harder" Brexit more determinedly than Theresa May had done.[276] Following theelection of Boris Johnson as leader in July, the Conservatives' new Cabinet became strongly supportive of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Its platform was changed to unequivocally support EU withdrawal, and there was a systematic campaign in preparation for the2019 general election to enforce loyalty to this aim by deselecting all MPs and candidates from the party who refused to explicitly undertake to support it. The Conservatives fought the election on the slogan "Get Brexit Done", a slogan which attracted strong criticism from almost all the other parties in Parliament. The election resulted in the largest overall majority for the Conservatives since the 1980s, the highest percentage of the popular vote for any party since 1979, and significant losses for the opposition Labour and Liberal Democrats.[277]
A month later, on 23 January 2020, Parliament ratified a withdrawal agreement from the European Union, which was in turn ratified by the EU Parliament on 30 January. On 31 January, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union after 47 years. During a transition period until 31 December 2020, the UK still followed EU rules and continued free trade and free movement for people within the European Union.
Ben Chu, writing forThe Independent, argued against the left-wing notion that the EU is a neoliberal organization, pointing to "high levels of social protection, state-owned rail companies, nationalised utilities and banks, various price controls and industrial interventions".[278]Unlike other left-wing critiques of the European Union—which are more focused on failure to achieve a social Europe—Hans Kundnani's bookEurowhiteness takes aim at the goals of European integration itself, as Kundani argues that the European Union reproduces the same failings ofnationalism on a larger scale.[279]
^Leruth, Benjamin (2020). Leruth, Benjamin; Startin, Nicholas; Usherwood, Simon (eds.).The Routledge Handbook of Euroscepticism (1st ed.). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. pp. 391–392.ISBN978-0-367-50003-0.
^Leruth, Benjamin (2018). FitzGibbon, John; Leruth, Benjamin; Startin, Nick (eds.).Euroscepticism as a Transnational and Pan-European Phenomenon (1st ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. 50.ISBN978-1-138-59843-0.
^Steven, Martin (2020).The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) (1st ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 124.ISBN978-1-5261-3914-6.
^nyeborgerlige.dkArchived 19 October 2019 at theWayback Machine. "We want fewer laws and rules (...) We want to (...) [a]bolish more laws than are passed". Retrieved 8 November 2017.
^Orlando, Vittorio; Conrad, Maximilian (24 January 2024). "Reinforcing or moderating? The impact of Brexit on Italian and German Euroscepticism".Frontiers in Political Science. Vol. 6.doi:10.3389/fpos.2024.1063039.
^"Almost 80% say Ireland should stay in the EU, even if UK leaves". NewsTalk. 29 May 2015.According to the poll, 84% of adults here also believe that Ireland has, on balance, benefited from membership. [..] These figures are higher than those in a similar poll carried out in 2013
^"General Election Manifesto 2016"(PDF).Sinn Féin. p. 30. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 5 December 2024. Retrieved1 May 2018.Recent governments have been totally deferential to the EU and its most powerful member states. ...[W]e will: uphold the right of democratically elected governments to decide their social and economic priorities in the interests of their own people; seek to return powers to EU member states and increase the influence of member state parliaments in the EU legislative process; support reforms of the EU which are aimed at reducing the power of the European Commission, making it more transparent and accountable to the European and member state parliaments; and increasing the influence of smaller member states.
^Durantini, Ermanno (28 September 2016)."Intervista a Roberto Fiore" [Interview with Roberto Fiore] (in Italian). Archived fromthe original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved16 August 2017.
^Ivaldi, Gilles (2011), "The Populist Radical Right in European Elections 1979–2009",The Extreme Right in Europe: Current Trends and Perspectives, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, p. 19
^Mitchell, Kristine (2014). "Does European Identification Increase Support for Further Economic Integration?".Journal of European Integration.36 (6):602–618.doi:10.1080/07036337.2014.916286.S2CID154597995.
^TT (17 February 2019)."V ska inte driva EU-utträde i valet" [V will not push for EU exit in election].SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved21 November 2020.
^"NOU 2012: 2: Utenfor og innenfor" [NOU 2012: 2: From outside and within].Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Norwegian). 2010. Archived fromthe original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved28 September 2012.
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