Opposing Europe from the Inside: A Comparison of the Opposition of Two 'Party-Group Mates', Five Stars Movement and UKIP

The boom of the Euro-crisis and the consequent mechanisms adopted to face it had implied the fulfilment of strict austerity measures that had two major consequences. On one side, they contributed to the formation of asymmetries among European member states, increasing the divide between peripheral countries (the PIIGS) and core countries (like Germany). On the other side, they contributed to create a fertile ground for the development and the rise in power of Eurosceptic parties, which were able to obtain astonishing results in the last EP election and are now represented in the European Parliament (EP). Nevertheless, the activity of such parties once they become institutionalized, e.g. entering in the EP, remains partly unstudied. This paper proposes to observe the activity in the EP of the Five Stars Movement, potentially described as a “movement party” comparing it to its “party-group mate”, the UKIP. Through an empirical analysis of the content of the speeches held in the plenary sitting of the EP by the exponents of these two parties, this paper proposes to assess if there are differences in the type of political opposition put forward by them, considering if “country-based” factors deriving by the different impact of the economic crisis may have played a role in shaping opposition.