Debating Europe in the Czech Republic: the "reluctant Europeans"?

Abstract

International audienceThis chapter is structured as follows. After providing some background information on the pattern of the European debate in the Czech Lands since 1989 and the specific context of the last European elections, I will show to what extent the framing of party positions on Europe still built on the pre-accession period in June 2009 (I). These positions define a vocal Eurosceptic discourse focused on the “promotion of national interests” and the “fight against the EU’s bureaucracy and democratic deficit”, and a timid pro-European discourse based on the promotion of the “European social market economy” and a vision of the EU as “a tool for peace and prosperity”. Interestingly enough, a strong capillarity between political families allows parties to borrow these themes from each other across ideological lines (II)