Euroscepticist tendencies of the populist parties in France: A study on "national rally" and "France unbowed


Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Marmara University, Institute of European Studies, Department of European Union Politics and International Relations (English), Turkey

Approval Date: 2019

Thesis Language: English

Student: ASLICAN SEZER

Supervisor: Armağan Emre Çakır

Abstract:

In recent years, the increasing opposition to European integration and European Union (EU) necessitates considering Euroscepticism as a fundamental phenomenon of European politics. It is seen that Euroscepticism has been firstly used in the academic field and media in the 1980s. On the other hand, the Maastricht Treaty that aims further integration compared to the previous period is accepted as a turning point in the history of Euroscepticism. Also, this study coincides with crucial developments in European politics such as unresolved Brexit process and May 2019 European Parliament elections. The increasing success of Eurosceptic parties and public attention to such parties require the interrogation of their effect in European politics. Party-based Euroscepticism has an important place due to political parties' roles in representative democracies. This thesis that is focused on party-based Euroscepticism explains the similar and different Eurosceptic attitudes of the two populist political parties, "National Rally" and "France Unbowed", with different ideologies in France. Given the decreasing effect of ideologies in political parties' stances and increasing similarities between established parties, populism as another important phenomenon of today's politics, provide an inclusive explanation to the rise of Euroscepticism.