Defending the status quo: the dilemmas of pro-European activism in Germany and the UK

The ‘politicisation of Europe’ has mainly been discussed with reference to Eurosceptic forces in the ‘conventional’ party-political arena, not least parties on the radical right (see Hutter et al., 2016). More recently, however, citizens have started to come out to defend the EU or the broader principle of European integration. From the perspective of the anti-Brexit campaign in the UK and Pulse of Europe in Germany, we address this new phenomenon and the contents of activists’ messaging in particular. Using concepts from the social movements literature, our comparative analysis of campaign materials and interview data reveals that the ability of these movements to make sustainable contribution to the politicisation of Europe has been constrained by their apparent inability to construct a) diagnostic frames that find the right balance between problematising the current political situation whilst supporting the established order; and b) prognostic frames that extend beyond a defence of a status quo that has been subject to growing public dissatisfaction.