Eurosceptic Parties and the EU: MEPs' attitudes in the roll-call votes. A cross-country analysis (Italy, France and UK)

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This paper examines the voting behaviour of Eurosceptic parties within the European Parliament (EP). Voting behaviour of legislators is a relevant topic in legislative studies and party politics as well. In literature, there are two different sets of explanation for voting cohesion among groups in the European Parliament (EPG). Kreppel (2002) suggests that the European Political Groups (EPGs) vote is structured along two dimensions i.e. the traditional left-right dimension and pro/anti EU integration, and that cohesion in voting behaviour parallels preference coherence. Conversely, Hix et al. (2007) argue that EPGs tend to vote as a block despite their increasing ideological heterogeneity, and that this cohesion can be explained by party discipline within political groups. In this paper, we focus on four Eurosceptic parties (Taggart and Sczerbiack 2008): the Front National (France), UKIP (UK), the Northern League and the Five Stars Movement (FSM) (Italy). The rationale behind this selection of cases is twofold: first, these parties show common ideological traits, particularly as regards European integration; secondly, they have recently increased their electoral support amidst the EU economic and migrant crises, achieving relevance at the supranational. Our main hypothesis is that, despite their presence across different groups in the EP, Eurosceptic parties vote together based on ideological proximity, and not by party discipline within political groups.

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