Due to its prominent role in the eurozone crisis, Greece offers an important case study for the effects of the crisis and of the EU’s ensuing turn towards austerity on attitudes towards European integration. For the two decades preceding the crisis, Greek public opinion had been strongly pro-European while both the party system and government were dominated by two pro-European parties. But from 2010, Greece was involved in a programme of major and exceptionally rapid fiscal adjustment with dramatic economic and social consequences. The Greek response to the crisis saw a dramatic rise in opposition to the current direction of European integration, perceived as revolving around fiscal discipline, but with this opposition not necessarily extending to a desire for a break with the EU. The sudden generalization of ‘soft Euroscepticism’ and its permeation across the political spectrum raises the question of re-examining and refining this term in the light of the Greek experience. Examining the period 2009-12, the paper investigates the impact of this experience on Euroscepticism in Greece. The paper assesses the multiplication of Eurosceptic party actors, the changing dynamics of party competition around European integration and the increase in Eurosceptic sentiment in public opinion.
