While it is undisputed that the Eurozone crisis has contributed to the politicization of European integration, the longer-term impact of this politicization on the structure of political conflict in Europe remains unclear. This article engages with research findings which argue that the crisis has contributed to a shift of political cleavages in Europe, from an economic (left vs. right) to a transnational (pro-vs. anti-EU) divide. We examine whether there is any evidence of such a shift in parliamentary debates about the crisis in four Eurozone states (Germany, Austria, Spain and Ireland) between 2009 and 2014. We use a combination of content and cluster analysis to identify the discursive frames that parliamentarians employed to make sense of the crisis, and then assess which factors affected how these frames were used. Our findings show that the economic (left-right) cleavage remained highly influential in shaping the four parliaments' crisis discourse.
With the 2011 ceasefire declaration the Basque patriotic left (IA) has committed itself more firmly to constitutional politics. Concurrently, Spain has experienced an upsurge in the popularity of new political parties in the historically two party dominant general elections. The emergence of a political challenger on the left of the political spectrum (Podemos) may pose an opportunity or a threat to the IA's unilateral strategy, as the parties have numerous points of ideological concurrence. This paper analyses how the IA seeks to translate its strategies into mainstream constitutional politics, by exploring how it responds to the question posed by Podemosally, competitor, or both? Using an historical institutionalist approach, the conditions at two critical juncturesthose surrounding the formation of new political parties during the democratic transition period and the more recent change in the electoral landscapeare compared to assess the initial impact of Podemos on IA cohesion.
Regional nationalism in Spain – particularly those movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country – have been characterized at the parliamentary level by political parties from both the traditional left and right of the political spectrum. While calls for greater autonomy and even secession are made from both ends of that spectrum, the framings of their calls for self-government vary in content and scope. Since the turn into the 21st century, sub-state nationalist parties of the left - those more typically associated with a prioritization of environmental concerns - in both regions have taken an increased share of the seats in their respective parliaments. Over the same period, climate change has increasingly moved to the front of the list of the concerns of European citizens. This paper investigates the degree to which key regional nationalists of the left have moved to incorporate environmental and climate change concerns into their claim making, narrative, and framings, highlighting both regional, and governance level comparative dynamics.
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