The Pandemic Crisis, the Ukraine War and Party Euroscepticism in the 2019-2024 EP

This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and the Ukraine war upon the nature of party-based Euroscepticism in the 2019-2024 EP. The EU once again attempted to deal with the pandemic crisis and the Ukraine war collectively, especially in areas hit hard by these crises. Consequently, the EU’s collective response to the challenges generated a range of issues and events within the Union, which opened windows of opportunity for Eurosceptic parties. In the light of this, this paper investigates how Eurosceptic parties constructed their discourses and Eurosceptic stances in response to these issues and events amidst the pandemic crisis and the Ukraine war. This research thus provides an important empirical and theoretical update in the research of the development of party-based Euroscepticism in times of crisis. To investigate the impact of the crises upon party Euroscepticism in the EP, this study delves into the content of tweets (n. 64,719) published by sixteen Eurosceptic parties in the EP from nine Member States. Employing a novel approach utilising topic modelling to measure party Euroscepticism, this research identifies and analyses the various areas of focus that Eurosceptic parties had on Twitter at different moments throughout the crises. Moreover, by identifying frames used in Eurosceptic tweets, this research investigates the varying terms in which Euroscepticism was expressed.