Soft eurosceptic parties in East Central Europe
Soft eurosceptic parties in East Central Europe

Summary/Abstract: Countries of Central Europe were characterised by high support of membership in the European Union in the early 1990s. The attitude of the public and the political elites started to change in the second half of the 1990s. The discourse grew into a more structured one. Negative assessments of the impacts of membership appeared. It was predominantly the Czech Republic but also other countries in the region of Central Europe that eurosceptic opinions emerged, which has been projected into the programmes of the main political parties. When studying the eurosceptic formations in Central Europe, several conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, eurosceptic positions are expressed mainly by opposition parties. Secondly, European integration has not yet evolved into a fully-fledged cleavage. Thirdly, most of these subjects represent europragmatic positions. Fourthly, the impact of membership on these countries has a high potential to further influence the stances of political parties and voters to European integration and consequently develop this cleavage in the future.

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