Since 2010, the Euro zone crisis has further increased the saliency of the European Union (EU) in the media and public discourse and has brought into question the very purpose of European integration, beyond economic prosperity. Nonetheless, until now, the impact of the economic crisis on citizen’s attitudes towards the EU have only been assessed in terms of absolute support or rejection. This panel will investigate the impact of the economic crisis on attitudes towards the EU from a broader perspective that includes classic theories of Euroscepticism but moves beyond them to include up to date research on critical and ambivalent attitudes toward the Union, issues of affective support, as well as logics of politicization and theories of Euro-alternativism.

Ten years after the emergence of the politicization issue, this panel aims at a) assessing its relevance in the study of public opinion on European integration; b) providing innovative empirical evidence in a comparative perspective; c) assessing the impact of the Euro crisis in these dynamics.