Still Out of Touch? Parties and Their Voters on the EU Dimension

Abstract

Previous research has uncovered a significant mismatch between parties and their voters on the EU dimension, showing that parties across the EU typically support more European integration than their electorates. Yet there are good theoretical reasons to expect that the gap has narrowed over time. The breakthrough of so-called challenger parties means more ideological alternatives, and the multiple crises have resulted in further politicization of European integration. But both the supply of parties and the impact of crises vary between member states. Utilizing EES survey data from European elections, this article studies opinion congruence between parties and their voters on the EU dimension in the five European Parliament elections conducted in the 2000s. The findings underline the change in the overall congruence that has taken place in the last two EP elections. Especially, in the latest 2024 elections, the congruence on the EU dimension was practically on the same level as congruence on the left–right dimension, implying that party responsiveness in EU matters is no longer such a major problem as in the beginning of the millennium.