Hungary and Italy are still among the most hit countries in Europe by the international financial crisis, but even on a different level they have economic problems since years. The ongoing financial, economic, political and Euro-crisis became the main element of the political debates and discourses among the Hungarian and Italian political parties. In both countries Euroskepticism is still on the rise.
The main goal of this paper is to examine the party system change (the politics of protest), the standpoints of Hungarian and Italian political parties and the public opinion on EU related issues and on the EU-democracy in the light of the economic and financial crisis. The primary and secondary sources collected will be analysed in the conceptual framework of Europeanisation (of national institutions and political parties) and Euro-scepticism (mass attitudes and stances of political parties).The aim of my research is to analyse how European integration impacts on domestic political affairs.
Italy, being one of the most Euro-enthusiastic member state, supported the deepening of European integration all through the 20th century. In spite of the strong pro-European public opinion, eurosceptic attitude has surfaced among the new centre-right political parties originating from the remarkable transformation of the domestic party system (early 1990s), and issues regarding the European integration have become more problematic then before.
I would like to analyse why the EU-phoria in Hungarian society was replaced by a feeling of disappointment (EU-phobia) following the accession of this country to the EU.
