Defending Europe from below: pro-European activism in Germany and the UK and its contribution to the politicisation of Europe

ABSTRACT

The ‘politicisation of Europe’ has mainly been discussed with reference to Eurosceptic parties in the ‘conventional’ political arena. From the perspective of the anti-Brexit campaign in the UK and Pulse of Europe in Germany, this article focuses on grassroots pro-European mobilisation to explore the potential of politicisation ‘from below’. The two movements stood out in their ability to provoke considerable levels of grassroot mobilisation. We argue, however, that both movements reached a strategic impasse that was marked by a lack of clarity about their desired future of Europe, and which hampered their ability to generate political change. Our comparative analysis of campaign materials and interview data reveals that these movements struggled to articulate a) diagnostic frames that struck the right balance between problematising the current political situation whilst supporting the established order, and b) prognostic frames that extended much beyond the defence of the status quo (ante).

KEYWORDS:

• European integration
• politicisation
• social movements
• Brexit
• framing

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editor and reviewers for providing constructive comments and guidance. We previously received helpful comments and suggestions from colleagues including Phillip Ayoub, Nathalie Brack, Caterina Froio and Andrea Pirro. We also express our gratitude to the interviewees whose insights and experiences were key to this research project, and to Kristina Lenart who provided invaluable assistance with data gathering and analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Our study is thus not primarily interested in the movements’ organisational longevity, or ability to generate personal or cultural change – even though we recognise the interrelatedness of these different consequences of social movements (Bosi, Giugni, and Uba 2016).

2. One example of such collaborative efforts was the ‘Not without us!’ pro-European civil society conference (Berlin, March 21st & 22nd, 2019), which brought together a plethora of pro-European initiatives (it was attended by the corresponding author).

3. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the corresponding author’s institution. Selected data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/R001847/1], and part of the project ‘28+ Perspectives on Brexit: a guide to the multi-stakeholder negotiations’ (Principal Investigator: Prof Helen Drake).

Notes on contributors

Stijn van Kessel

Stijn van Kessel is Reader (Associate Professor) in European Politics at Queen Mary University of London. His main research interests are populism and populist parties, Euroscepticism and EU politicisation. He is the author of Populist Parties in Europe. Agents of Discontent? (2015, Palgrave) and The Failure of Remain. Anti-Brexit Activism in the United Kingdom (2023, McGill-Queen’s UP, with Adam Fagan). His articles have appeared in journals including the European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics and Government & Opposition. He is the joint editor of the Routledge book series on Extremism & Democracy.

Adam Fagan

Adam Fagan is Professor of European Politics at King’s College London. His research has focused on civil society and popular mobilisations across Eastern Europe. His current research focuses on climate activism and grassroot mobilisations in Poland and Serbia. Adam has recently published (with Stijn van Kessel) The Failure of Remain (McGill-Queen’s UP), an analysis of the anti-Brexit mobilisation in the UK. Adam is Senior Editor of East European Politics (Routledge).