Abstract

European Union has been going through major crises for the last decade. First the global economic crisis affected it very deeply. Then with the massive flows in 2015, refugee issue became very critical form the future of the project. European Union and Turkey signed a very controversial deal, giving Greece a very important role that is beyond its capacity. All these developments led to creation of new political parties, while changing the vote distribution among the old ones. Both Greece, Italy and Spain went through “critical” elections, changing their party systems.

This paper analyses the dynamics of party system change in Southern Europe, while comparing two theoretical frameworks, Euroscepticism and populism. It also provides in depth information about Podemos, Syriza and Movimento Cinque Stelle in a comparative manner. It also claims that today Europe has more impact on national politics, thanks to further politicisation of European integration. This paper is also establishing the link between volatility, which is an important indicator of party system change, and issue polarisation of European integration. The results establish a significant relationship between volatility and party polarisation on the European integration dimension in Italy and Greece, while the case of Spain is different.