Abstract

Economic crisis, bailout packages, and austerity measures have been the central agenda in Southern European countries for the last few years, while a strong decline of trust in European and national institutions was alarming. Citizens’ dealignment proved itself important in various demonstrations around Europe. This situation created new parties and changed the vote share of some others. Political science scholars have a certain interest and there is a growing literature on the topic. The demand side, voters, and the supply side, political parties, deserve additional attention. This paper investigates the contradictions in Southern European countries related to political parties and voting behaviour, even if they have faced similar implementations of the crisis and congruent regulations from the European Union. It is based on the findings of the European Election Studies (EES) 2004, 2009 and 2014; and it compares citizens’ perceptions of political parties and voting behaviour in EP elections. Voting behaviour will be the main dependent variable and it will be explained with left/right ideology, independence/integration attitudes and partisanship. Measuring the impact of “Europe” will be given a special focus.