Euroscettica sarà lei! : il volto della nuova Europa

[Machine translation] Euroscepticism has established itself over the years as a result of the emergence of a new dimension of political competition, alternative and transverse to the traditional left/right contrast, and more closely linked to the degree of consensus for the European integration process. The Eurosceptic family has thus ended up welcoming an ideologically heterogeneous group of parties, which often have as their only common link the opposition to the process of European integration and the transfer of additional portions of sovereignty by member states to the European Union (EU). In recent years, the crisis and the austerity measures introduced at European level have given a further impetus to the development of the Eurosceptic front, consolidating the electoral bases of existing parties and leading to the birth of new, openly anti-EU parties. In this context, the European elections of May 2014 took place, which, in the opinion of many commentators, saw an unprecedented affirmation on the part of the Eurosceptic front. But who are the Eurosceptic parties? Where did they get the most votes? And what was the real extent of their success? After analyzing in a theoretical key the development of the concept of Euroscepticism, this chapter aims to answer these questions, first identifying, among the parties that participated in the elections of May 2014 in the 28 member states of the Union, those belonging to the Eurosceptic family, and then analyzing their electoral trend compared to the previous European elections. The data in our possession confirm a generalized growth of the anti-EU front compared to previous electoral consultations, but with strong differences at the level of the individual country.