Not Enthusiastic Anymore? the Eurozone Crisis and Its Impact on Spanish Political Elites’ Support for the European Union

Since the adhesion of Spain to the EEC in 1986, this country’s nationals have shown a high level of support for the European integration process. Membership in the EU was seen as a guarantee of convergence with the most advanced countries in the continent both in economic as well as in political terms. In practice, these expectations were to a great extent accomplished, having experienced Spain a remarkable process of modernization which situated it in 2007 as the eighth country in the world in GDP terms. This generalized support for the EU was shared both by the public and political elites – being these even more enthusiastic than their fellow citizens (see, for instance, Jerez-Mir et al. 2010). However, Spain has also been one of the countries most affected by the economic and financial crisis that has hit the EU (particularly the Eurozone) since 2010. The main questions we aim to answer in this paper is whether this crisis and its management by EU institutions has eroded the traditional support to the EU shown by Spanish domestic political elites and, if so, to what extent. Besides, we will investigate if the crisis has also affected the underlying foundations of this support – that is, if factors explaining support for the EU has been altered during the crisis. To this end, we draw on survey data provided by the INTUNE and ENEC-2014 projects on the attitudes of Spanish MPs towards the EU in the years 2007, 2009, and 2014.