Left-Wing but Unwilling to Support Redistribution? Explaining Public Support for Transnational Fiscal Transfers in the EU

The redistribution of fiscal resources from richer to poorer European Union (EU) member states has taken on a new quality in the wake of the Euro crisis. With the creation of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), fiscal redistribution in the EU has become a particularly contested aspect of European integration. We theorize how citizens’  identity, their beliefs about redistribution and their individual income, affect their views on whether their country should contribute to transnational redistribution in the EU. Based on a multi-level analysis of data from the European Election Study 2014 we show that the extent to which individuals hold a European identity is strongly linked to their preferences on EU redistribution. At the same time we find that citizens’ beliefs about domestic redistribution affect their support for EU redistribution.  The relationship between citizens’ support for domestic redistribution and their preference for EU redistribution is conditional on whether they expect a pecuniary gain from domestic redistribution. Among low-income citizens – those who tend the natural beneficiaries of domestic redistribution – support for domestic redistribution does not translate into support for EU redistribution. It is only among the subgroup of high-income citizens that a support for domestic redistribution translates into support for EU redistribution. Poor macro-economic conditions aggravate the conflict over resources. Citizens with low incomes and an economically left-leaning ideological position are most opposed towards EU redistribution in the less well-off member states of the EU.