Southern Europe and the Eurozone Crisis Negotiations: Preference Formation and Contested Issues

With the exception of Malta, South European countries were severely hit by the Great Recession, that is, the financial and economic crisis that started in 2008 and brought about profound consequences such as the emergence of protest parties (Morlino and Raniolo 2017), the growth of Euroscepticism (Verney 2017), unprecedented levels of political instability (Bosco and Verney 2016), a shrinking of the welfare state (e.g. Wulfgramm, Bieber, and Leibfried 2016) and higher socio-economic inequality (Dolvik and Martin 2015). A number of measures, including financial assistance schemes and a strengthening of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) rules, were introduced at the EU level in response to the crisis during the 2011–2013 period, after being negotiated and approved in a relatively short time. Although they imposed budget constraints bound to seriously impair their ability to respond to voters’ demands, South European governments voted in favour of those reforms. In the most debt-ridden countries, citizen dissatisfaction contributed to a delegitimisation of traditional leaders and parties and paved the way for the emergence of new actors who were successfully mobilised by new political entrepreneurs exploiting the potential of protest spread across society (Morlino and Raniolo 2017, 58). In sum, constraints to government responsiveness in Southern Europe created a favourable environment for populist movements and parties to flourish (Morlino 2011, 211).