CULTURE, IDENTITY AND ISSUES OF NATIONAL MINORITIES, pages: 173 - 192, 2023

The challenges of the European project: Euroscepticism and nationalism. Causes and perspectives

Doi: https://doi.org/10.58603/XWRY4251

Rezumat: The last few years have been marked by a series of challenges for the entire Western world. It is about a succession of crises, among which we recall the institutional, economic, political, social and sanitary ones that have befallen Europe. The pandemic and the conflict at the border of the European Union represent only recent crises with a strong impact on the European construct. In this context, the nationalist discourse legitimized itself as revenge and alternative at the same time. Thus, almost naturally, the phenomenon of Euroscepticism fueled by the effervescence of nationalism also began to grow. Through the present study, we aim to understand to what extent the growth of the nationalist-Eurosceptic phenomenon within the European Union represents an imminent danger or an opportunity for the consolidation of the European project. In the first part we will make a brief presentation of the causes and problems that led to the growth of nationalism. Then, our study will present the evolution of Euroscepticism and the emergence of the populist vote within the EU – a vote that was most often associated with EXIT-type projects. The last part aims to present a perspective through which we can evaluate whether the recent crises are not actually opportunities to combat destabilizing phenomena.