Political Contestation Online: EU Citizens’ Opinions on Migration and EU Legitimacy

The recent years of European economic turmoil and crisis have made visible a growing deficit of public legitimacy in the EU. European migration and issues of diversity have lead to heated public debates in national mass media of the member states as well adding to expressions of EU contestation. Against this background, this paper asks in how far political contestation of the EU as well as of domestic actors play a role in citizens’ demands and fears concerning migration and diversity. In particular, it investigates contestation on national online news websites. Doing so, the paper conducts a comparative case study by drawing from data of news articles and attached user comments in Denmark and Germany. Both countries have experienced a rise of anti-EU and –immigration parties possibly encouraged by the current EU economic crisis and growing public concerns related to the sustainability of the welfare state. The aim of comparing online debates in these two countries is to investigate Danish and German opinions about the legitimacy of the EU focusing on migration and diversity. By this, it will explore potential cleavages among EU citizens concerning mediated political opinions on the EU and domestic politics during crisis.