Abstract
Immigration and the European Union (EU) have become two highly contested issues in Western European politics. This work compares the positions of two ‘different’ populist-Eurosceptic parties on these two matters: the Northern League (LN) and the Five Star Movement (M5S). The chapter proposes a multifaceted conceptualization of the EU and the migration issues to investigate how LN and M5S position across their multiple sub-dimensions. The empirical analysis is based on an original data set of parliamentary speeches delivered by the two parties’ representatives in two distinct institutional arenas: the Italian and the European Parliament. The results show that LN’s positions are guided by cultural-identitarian and sovereignist arguments, while M5S mobilizes the two issues to boost its anti-elitist claims.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The party changed its name in 2017, but for simplicity, we use its former denomination throughout the chapter.
- 2.
The alliance was composed by: Lega Lombarda, Lega Veneta, Piemont Autonomista, Unione Ligure, Lega Emiliano Romagnola and Alleanza Toscana.
- 3.
This mantra is also the title of M5S’ anthem as reported in the movement’s official blog http://www.beppegrillo.it/movimento/2010/07/ognuno-vale-uno.html.
- 4.
Furthermore, M5S is represented in the EP only since the last EP elections in 2014.
- 5.
Detailed information about speeches’ selection and analysis (codebook and coding criteria) are available upon request.
- 6.
A corpus is a collection of texts in machine-readable format.
- 7.
Further information at https://www.maxqda.com/.
- 8.
The Comparative Manifesto Project provides researchers with parties’ positioning on several issues derived from the content analysis of their electoral manifestos. Further information at https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/.
- 9.
WMatrix is an open-source software for corpus analysis and comparison. See http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix/.
- 10.
A keyword is ‘a word which occurs with unusual frequency in a given text. This does not mean high frequency but unusual frequency, by comparison with a reference corpus of some kind’ (Scott 1997: 236).
- 11.
WMatrix elaborates a word frequency list for each corpus. It then applies a statistical formula to compare each word’s relative frequency in corpus A with the one of each word in corpus B. The value of statistic, or ‘keyness’, is proportional to the difference in relative frequencies: the higher the value of ‘keyness’, the more prototypical the word is for a given corpus in comparison to the other. We consider as statistically significant only those items with a ‘keyness’ value over 7, since 6.63 is the cut-off point for 99% confidence of significance (Rayson 2012).
- 12.
Mineo is the name of a reception centre in the province of Catania (Sicily), which has been in the spotlight for corruption and human rights violations. For further details: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/01/migrants-more-profitable-than-drugs-how-mafia-infiltrated-italy-asylum-system.
References
Akkerman, T., de Lange, S. L., & Rooduijn, M. (Eds.). (2016). Radical right-wing populist parties in Western Europe: Into the mainstream? Routledge studies in extremism and democracy. London; New York: Routledge.
Brack, N. (2018). Opposing Europe in the European parliament. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60201-5.
Bressanelli, E., and de Candia, M. (2018). Love, convenience, or respectability? Understanding the alliances of the Five Star Movement in the European Parliament. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana Di Scienza Politica, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2018.5.
Brubaker, R. (2010). Migration, membership, and the modern nation-state: Internal and external dimensions of the politics of belonging. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 41(1), 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh.2010.41.1.61.
Budge, I. (1994). A new spatial theory of party competition: Uncertainty, ideology and policy equilibria viewed comparatively and temporally. British Journal of Political Science, 24(04), 443. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123400006955.
Bulli, G., & Soare, S. C. (2018). Immigration and the refugee crisis in a new immigration country: The case of Italy. HKJU-CCPA, 18(1), 127–156.
Carlotti, B. (2017). The odd couple: Analyzing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and Italian Five Stars Movement’s (FSM’s) European Union (EU)-opposition in the European Parliament (EP). Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana Di Scienza Politica, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2017.24.
Carrubba, C. J., Gabel, M., Murrah, L., Clough, R., Montgomery, E., & Schambach, R. (2006). Off the record: Unrecorded legislative votes, selection bias and roll-call vote analysis. British Journal of Political Science, 36(04), 691. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123406000366.
Corbetta, P., & Gualmini, E. (Eds.). (2013). Il partito di Grillo. Bologna: Il mulino.
Crespy, A., & Verschueren, N. (2009). From Euroscepticism to resistance to European integration: An interdisciplinary perspective. Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 10(3), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/15705850903105793.
De Wilde, P., and Zürn, M. (2012). Can the politicization of European integration be reversed?: Can the politicization of European integration be reversed? JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 50, 137–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2011.02232.x.
Diamanti, I., & Natale, P. (2013). Grillo e il movimento 5 stelle: analisi di un fenomeno politico. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Easton, D. (1965). A systems analysis of political life. New York: Wiley.
Gianfreda, S. (2018). Politicization of the refugee crisis? A content analysis of parliamentary debates in Italy, the UK, and the EU. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana Di Scienza Politica, 48(01), 85–108. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2017.20.
Givens, T., & Luedtke, A. (2005). European immigration policies in comparative perspective: Issue salience, partisanship and immigrant rights. Comparative European Politics, 3(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110051.
Hammar, T. (Ed.). (1985). European immigration policy: A comparative study. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire], New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hix, S., & Lord, C. (1997). Political parties in the European Union. New York: St. Martin’s.
Hooghe, L., & Marks, G. (2018). Cleavage theory meets Europe’s crises: Lipset, Rokkan, and the transnational cleavage. Journal of European Public Policy, 25(1), 109–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2017.1310279.
Hooghe, L., Marks, G., & Wilson, C. J. (2002). Does left/right structure party positions on European integration? Comparative Political Studies, 35(8), 965–989. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041402236310.
Ivaldi, G., Lanzone, M. E., and Sozzi, F. (2016). Eurosceptic Parties and the EU: MEPs’ attitudes in the roll-call votes on immigration policies. A cross-country analysis (Italy, France and UK). Presented at the 66th PSA Annual International Conference, Brighton, UK.
Kreppel, A. (2002). The European parliament and supranational party system: A study in institutional development. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Krouwel, A., & Abts, K. (2007). Varieties of Euroscepticism and populist mobilization: Transforming attitudes from mild Euroscepticism to harsh Eurocynicism. Acta Politica, 42(2–3), 252–270. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ap.5500187.
Lanzone, M. (2014). The “Post-Modern” populism in Italy: The case of the five star movement. The many faces of populism: Current perspectives (Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 22, pp. 53-78), Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Lord, C. (2013). No representation without justification? Appraising standards of justification in European Parliament debates. Journal of European Public Policy, 20(2), 243–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2013.746123.
Lowe, W., Benoit, K., Mikhaylov, S., & Laver, M. (2011). Scaling policy preferences from coded political texts: Scaling policy preferences from coded political texts. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 36(1), 123–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-9162.2010.00006.x.
Mair, P. (2007). Political opposition and the European Union. Government and Opposition, 42(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2007.00209.x.
Marks, G., & Steenbergen, M. (2002). Understanding political contestation in the European Union. Comparative Political Studies, 35(8), 879–892. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041402236297.
Marshall, T. H., & Bottomore, T. (Eds.). (1992). Citizenship and social class. London: Pluto Press.
Mosca, L. (2014). The five star movement: Exception or vanguard in Europe? The International Spectator, 49(1), 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2013.875821.
Mudde, C. (2007). Populist radical right parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511492037.
Odmalm, P. (2014). The party politics of the EU and immigration. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137462510.
Partington, A. (2010). Modern diachronic corpus-assisted discourse studies (MD-CADS) on UK newspapers: An overview of the project. Corpora, 5(2), 83–108. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2010.0101.
Pirro, A. L., & van Kessel, S. (2018). Populist Eurosceptic trajectories in Italy and the Netherlands during the European crises. Politics, 38(3), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395718769511.
Prosser, C. (2014). Building policy scales from manifesto data: A referential content validity approach. Electoral Studies, 35, 88–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2014.05.004.
Przeworski, A., & Teune, H. (1970). The logic of comparative social inquiry (p. 153). New York: Wiley. Fleming, W. G. (1970). American Political Science Review, 64(04), 1255–1256. https://doi.org/10.2307/1958372.
Rayson, P. (2012). Corpus analysis of key words. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0247.
Scott, M. (1997). The right word in the right place: Key word associates in two languages. AAA—Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, 22(2), 239–252.
Serricchio, F., Tsakatika, M., and Quaglia, L. (2013). Euroscepticism and the global financial crisis: Euroscepticism and the global financial crisis. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 51(1), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2012.02299.x.
Sjursen, H. (2002). Why expand?: The question of legitimacy and justification in the EU’s enlargement policy. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 40(3), 491–513. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5965.00366.
Sørensen, C. (2008). Love me, love me not… A typology of public Euroscepticism. Sussex European Institute.
Szczerbiak, A., & Taggart, P. (2001). Parties, positions and Europe: Euroscepticism in the EU candidate states of Central and Eastern Europe.
Taggart, P. (1995). New populist parties in Western Europe. West European Politics, 18(1), 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402389508425056.
Taggart, P. (1998). A touchstone of dissent: Euroscepticism in contemporary western European party systems. European Journal of Political Research, 33(3), 363–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.00387.
Tarchi, M. (2002). Populism Italian style. In Y. Mény & Y. Surel (Eds.), Democracies and the populist challenge (pp. 120–138). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403920072_7.
Usherwood, S. (2017). How has Brexit changed British Euroscepticism? Political Insight, 8(2), 42–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041905817726907.
van Spanje, J. (2010). Contagious parties: Anti-immigration parties and their impact on other parties’ immigration stances in contemporary western Europe. Party Politics, 16(5), 563–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068809346002.
Vasilopoulou, S. (2009). Varieties of Euroscepticism: The case of the European extreme right. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 5(1), 3–23.
Wendler, F. (2016). Debating Europe in national parliaments: Public justification and political polarization. Palgrave Macmillan.
Wolinetz, S. B., & Zaslove, A. (Eds.). (2018). Absorbing the blow: Populist parties and their impact on parties and party systems. London, New York: Rowman and Littlefield International Ltd.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Carlotti, B., Gianfreda, S. (2020). Do Populists Talk the Same? A Multilevel Analysis of the Northern League and Five Star Movements’ Positions on Immigration and the European Union. In: Baldassari, M., Castelli, E., Truffelli, M., Vezzani, G. (eds) Anti-Europeanism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24428-6_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24428-6_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24427-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24428-6
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)