From One Crisis to Another: How Transnational Conflict Lines Shape in the European Parliament
How do changes in the dimensionality of the political space impact the quality of representation in the EP? We pursue this question in two stages: first, we examine which issues matter most for voters’ choices of national parties in European elections; and second, we analyze which issues drive the sorting of national parties in EPGs. We study three European Parliament elections (2009, 2014 and 2019) utilizing data on political party positions (EUProfiler and EUandI) and on voter positions (European Election Study); in detail, we examine three issue dimensions: economic left-right, immigration and EU integration. Our findings will address the wider question on whether a reconfiguration of traditional cleavage lines is taking place across Europe thus redefining representation in the EP.