Bailout Elections in a Changing Europe: Euroscepticism and Eurosceptics in Italy and Greece

In Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, here defined “bailout Mediterranean countries”, Europe, EU policies and their effects on the citizens were recurring arguments during the electoral campaign for the 2014 European Parliament, beyond that affecting also some recent national elections. Then, may we say that a “Southern European public space” was born? These countries have been considered because of the peculiar itinerary they followed to join the European Community: they shared similar historical background between dictatorship periods, Second World War and internal civil wars, finally choosing to join Europe for similar reasons: maintaining their sovereignty, democratizing their societies and developing their economies. Their citizens used to be some of the highest participative and pro-Europe, but although they were granted access to common economic resources, which they used for feeding both their economies and their electorates, that attitude changed a lot with the tough economic crisis. To what extent? The conceptual evolution of the term Euroscepticism was one of the factors that produced such a change. Lately, this concept designed the positions of rejection of the European Union as a supranational entity (and therefore the defense of national sovereignty). Currently under the same definition we may include various positions of criticism of the policies developed by the EU and it seems more appropriate to articulate this term with a plural meaning, i.e. “Euroscepticisms”, and also with a positive role: as an element that fosters the dialogue and change inside the same EU, but not a rejection of the idea of a United Europe. The second part of this analysis deals with the Eurosceptical parties in Italy and Greece, and it wants to emphasize the actual incidence of issues linked to the economic crisis and to the relationship with the EU, on success (or less) of these political formations, even and especially in view of the economic situation generated in both national systems. Final aim of this paper will be to stress the impact of different post-electoral results (considering both EPE 2014 and 2015 elections at a national level), obtained by mainstream and opposition parties in Italy and Greece (Democratic Party - 5 Stars Movement - New Democracy - SYRIZA), on the Italian and Greek political systems (mainly focusing on the latter), despite their different ideological matrices, their place on the left-right continuum and the positions covered by these political formations in both countries’ institutions.