Abstract
The results of the elections to the European Parliament in June 2004 in Poland have given rise to speculation as to whether the Polish constituency is, to a large extent, turning Euro-sceptic. This is because of two reasons. First was the very low turnout rate of less than 21%. Second was the fact that three out of four successful parties were considered more or less Euro-sceptic. This contribution examines to what extent party-based Euro-scepticism in Poland is based on ideology or is more a function of party competition and, therefore, tactical. The findings suggest that most of the Euro-sceptical positions are tactical and can thus be expected to at least partially be replaced by a pragmatic approach to European politics. It will be interesting to see if this also holds true for the single Euro-rejectionist party League of Polish Families, LPR, whose Europhobic attitude is part of its party ideology.
Acknowledgements
A former version of this paper has been presented at the Third International Conference on Elites and EU-Enlargement. Popular Opposition to, and Support for Different Types of Integration into the European Union among the New Member States of Central and Eastern Europe, Praha, 17 – 18 February 2006, British Academy, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Prague. Thanks for comments to Włodzimierz Wesołowski, Heinrich Best, Simona Guerra and Martin Myant. Many thanks also to helpful comments on a later version by Petra Grabner and Carsten Schymik.
Notes
1 Not dated but ranged before statements from January 2002.
2 Translated from Polish by the author.
3 Translated from Polish by the author.