Austria , former leader of the Austrian hard Eurosceptic party
FPÖ The
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), established in 1956, is a right-wing populist party that mainly attracts support from young people and workers. In 1989, it changed its stance over the EU to Euroscepticism. It opposed Austria joining the EU in 1994, and opposed the introduction of the
euro in 1998. The party would like to leave the EU if it threatens to develop into
a country, or if
Turkey joins. The FPÖ received 20–27% of the national vote in the 1990s, and more recently received 18% in 2008. Following the
2024 Austrian legislative election, it has 57/183 National Council seats, 16/60 Federal Council seats, and 6/20 European Parliament seats. The
Bündnis Zukunft Österreich (BZÖ), established in 2005, is a socially conservative party that has always held Eurosceptic elements. In 2011 the party openly supported leaving the
eurozone, and in 2012 it announced that it supported a full withdrawal from the European Union. The party has also called upon a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. In polls it generally received around 10–15%, although in one state it did receive 45% of the vote in 2009. Since the 2017 election, it has 0/183 National Council seats, 0/62 Federal Council seats, and 0/19 European Parliament seats.
Team Stronach, established in 2012, has campaigned to reform the European Union, as well as to replace the euro with an Austrian Euro. In 2012, it regularly received 8–10% support in national polls. Politicians from many different parties (including the Social Democratic Party and the BZÖ) as well as previous independents switched their allegiances to the new party upon creation. In two local elections in March 2013, it won 11% of the vote in
Carinthia, and 10% of the vote in
Lower Austria. It dissolved in 2017.
Ewald Stadler, a former member of FPÖ (and later of BZÖ) was very Eurosceptic, but in 2011 became a member of the European Parliament due to the Lisbon Treaty. Before Stadler accepted the seat, this led to heavy critics by Jörg Leichtfried (SPÖ) "Stadler wants to just rescue his political career" because Stadler before mentioned he would never accept a seat as MEP if this was only due to the Lisbon Treaty. On 23 December 2013 he founded a conservative and Eurosceptic party called
The Reform Conservatives, although it has been inactive since June 2016. In the
2014 European Parliament election, the FPÖ increased its vote to 19.7% (up 7.0%), gaining 2 new MEPs, making a total of 4; the party came third, behind the ÖVP and the SPÖ. EU-STOP (the electoral alliance of the
EU Withdrawal Party and the
Neutral Free Austria Federation) polled 2.8%, gaining no seats, and the
Reform Conservatives 1.2%, with Team Stronach putting up no candidates. In the
2019 European Parliament election, the FPÖ came 3rd with 17.2% of the vote which was only slightly down on 2014 despite a scandal allegedly promising public contracts to a woman posing as a Russian backer. This precipitated the collapse of the ruling coalition and a new election being called.
Belgium According to
Eurostat, in the fall of 2018, 44% of Belgians stated that they did not trust the
European Union. The main Eurosceptic party in
Belgium is the
far-right Vlaams Belang which is active in the
Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. However, the
left-wing PTB-PVDA also opposes the EU on many issues, primarily
austerity and social policy, while defending a fundamental reform of the existing European framework instead of an exit from it. In the
2014 European Parliament election, Vlaams Belang lost over half of its previous vote share, polling 4.3% (down 5.5%) and losing 1 of its 2 members of the European Parliament. Despite the presence of Eurosceptic parties in Belgium, their weight is relatively low, as Belgium is predominantly
Europeanist. In 2019, Vlaams Belang stated in its program for the
2019 European Parliament election that it opposes the creation of a European state, would like to change the
Economic and Monetary Union of the EU, and to end the
Schengen Area, and refuses the accession of
Turkey to the EU. More widely, the euro-sceptic arguments of the Vlaams Belang are based on four pillars: • loss of
sovereignty (for instance on economic sovereignty or on the binding legal order); • the financial cost of the European Union; • less competences for European Union; • leaving the euro (even though in 2019 the party has changed its line and now wants to reform the euro). During the
2019 European Parliament election in Belgium, Vlaams Belang made substantial gains in both and polled in second place in Flemish region. At the beginning of 2019, the party was enrolled in the group of
European Alliance of People and Nations in the
European Parliament. The
New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) is a soft Eurosceptic party in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Before 2010, the N-VA was
pro-European and supported the idea of a democratic European confederation, but has since altered this policy to a more sceptical stance on further European integration and now calls for more democratic transparency within the EU, changes to the EU's common asylum policy and economic reforms to the
Eurozone. The N-VA has obtained 26.8% of the votes or 4 seats of the Dutch-language college out of 12 (21 MEPs for Belgium) in the
2014 European Parliament election. In April 2019, it stood in the
European Conservatives and Reformists Group of the European Parliament, and can be considered a moderate Eurosceptic party. In the French-speaking part of Belgium (
Walloons), there are four parties that are Eurosceptic to a varying extent. The first one is the
Nation Movement, a far-right party which was a member of the
Alliance for Peace and Freedom in the European Parliament. The second one is the
National Front, also a far-right party which criticizes the European bureaucracy, intends to guarantee and preserve national independence and freedom in a liberated Europe; it also reaffirms the Christian roots of Europe. The third one is the
People's Party, classified as right or extreme right. In its program for the
2019 European elections, the People's Party proposed to abolish the
European Commission, reduce the number of European parliamentarians and fight against the worker-posted directive. For this party, the EU must be led by a president elected by
universal suffrage with clear but limited competences. It also wants to renegotiate the European Union treaties, restrict the
judicial activism of the
European Court of Human Rights. It declares itself against the
Global Compact for Migration. The last one is the . In early 2019, the party aims to reduce the powers of the European Commission, to abolish the
Common Agricultural Policy, to abandon common defense projects, to simplify the exit procedure of the
European Union, to reject
federalism and to forbid the European Union to direct economic, fiscal or social policy, Finally, the
Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) is a
Marxist electoral and unitary party. It intends to revise the European treaties considered too
neoliberal for their enforcement of austerity measures. The PTB-PVDA politician
Marc Botenga (who went on to become the party's first
MEP in 2019) published an extensive piece on EU politics in the magazine '''' in 2018. In it, Botenga criticized the EU structures, noting that the scope for economically
progressive politics in the EU was limited due to its budget rules and pro-
corporate frameworks. However, because the European market had already become integrated to a high extent, he also rejected an outright exit from the EU as he did not believe this would lead either to true sovereignty or to short-term economic benefits (an argument for which he cited
Yanis Varoufakis). Instead of retreating into
nationalism, Botenga argued that
organized labour had to combat neoliberal policies on an EU-wide scale.
Bulgaria , leader of the Bulgarian Eurosceptic party
Attack Parties with mainly Eurosceptic views are
NFSB,
Attack, and
VMRO – BND, which is a member of the Eurosceptic
European Conservatives and Reformists Group. Bulgaria's Minister of Finance,
Simeon Djankov, stated in 2011 that ERM II membership to enter the Euro zone would be postponed until after the
Eurozone crisis had stabilised. In the
2014 European Parliament election Bulgaria remained overwhelmingly pro-EU, with the Eurosceptic Attack party receiving 3% of the vote, down 9%, with the splinter group
National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria taking 3; neither party secured any MEPs. A coalition between
VMRO – BND and
Bulgaria Without Censorship secured an MEP position for
Angel Dzhambazki from IMRO, who is a hard Eurosceptic. Followers of Eurosceptic Attack tore down and trampled the
European flag on 3 March 2016 at a meeting of the party in the Bulgarian capital
Sofia, dedicated to the commemoration of the 138th anniversary of the
liberation of Bulgaria from the
Ottoman Empire. In the
2019 European Parliament election, Bulgaria remained overwhelmingly pro-EU with the ruling centre-right Gerb party winning with 31%, against 26% for the socialist BSP. Since the
Bulgarian political crisis, the far-right hard Eurosceptic party
Revival has outplaced Attack, with it getting 14% in the
2023 Bulgarian parliamentary election.
Croatia Parties with Eurosceptic views are mainly small right-wing parties like
Croatian Party of Rights,
Croatian Party of Rights dr. Ante Starčević,
Croatian Pure Party of Rights,
Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights,
Croatian Christian Democratic Party, and
Only Croatia – Movement for Croatia. The only
parliamentary party that is vocally Eurosceptic is
The Key of Croatia (formerly known as Human Shield) that won 5 out of 151 seats at the
2016 parliamentary election. Their position is generally considered to waver between hard and soft Euroscepticism; it requests thorough reform of the EU so that all member states would be perfectly equal. In the
2019 European Parliament election, the Key of Croatia gained its first seat in the European Parliament with 6% of the vote putting it in 5th place. The Key of Croatia would go on to lose all of its seats in the
2020 Croatian parliamentary election, and merge into the
Law and Justice party in 2024. Law and Justice won a single seat (now vacant) in the
2024 parliamentary elections as part of a coalition with the
Homeland Movement. Its only remaining MEPs would lose re-election in the
2024 European Parliament election.
Cyprus Parties with mainly Eurosceptic views in Cyprus are the
Progressive Party of Working People and
ELAM. In the
2019 European Parliament election, there was little change politically – the conservatives won narrowly, the ruling DISY taking two seats with 29%, followed by socialist AKEL (27.5%, two seats) with no seats taken by Eurosceptic parties.
Czech Republic , former Eurosceptic
President of the Czech Republic In May 2010, the Czech president
Václav Klaus said that they "needn't hurry to enter the Eurozone".
Petr Mach, an economist, a close associate of president Václav Klaus and a member of the
Civic Democratic Party between 1997 and 2007, founded the
Free Citizens Party in 2009. The party aims to mainly attract dissatisfied Civic Democratic Party voters. At the time of the
Lisbon Treaty ratification, they were actively campaigning against it, supported by the president Vaclav Klaus, who demanded opt-outs such as were granted to the United Kingdom and Poland, unlike the governing Civic Democratic Party, who endorsed it in the
Chamber of Deputies. After the treaty has been ratified, Mach's party is in favour of withdrawing from the European Union completely. In the
2014 European Parliament election, the Free Citizens Party won one mandate and allied with UKIP in the
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFD). The
2025 Czech legislative election brought into the Chamber of Deputies three soft eurosceptic parties, the populist
ANO 2011 (ANO), the centre-right
Civic Democratic Party (ODS), and the right-wing
Motorists for Themselves (AUTO). The election also brought into the Chamber of Deputies one hard eurosceptic party, the far-right
Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) with representatives of
Svobodní,
PRO Law Respect Expertise and
Tricolour running on its list. The hard eurosceptic
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) did not enter the Chamber of Deputies.
Denmark , member (and former leader) of the hard Eurosceptic party
Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti), the fifth-largest represented in the
Danish parliament and the fifth-most represented in the European Parliament The
People's Movement against the EU only takes part in European Parliament elections and has one member in the European Parliament. The soft Eurosceptic
June Movement, originally a split-off from the People's Movement against the EU, existed from 1992 to 2009. In the Danish
Parliament, the
Red-Green Alliance previously advocated withdrawal from the EU, but in March 2019, the party announced it would no longer campaign for a referendum to leave the EU, pointing to
Brexit illustrating the need for clarity before withdrawal can be considered. The
Danish People's Party also advocates withdrawal, but says it supports some EU structures such as the
internal market, and supported the EU-positive
Liberal-Conservative coalition between 2001 and 2011 and again from 2015 to 2019. The
Socialist People's Party, minorities within the
Social Liberal Party and
Social Democratic Party, and some smaller parties were against accession to the European Union in 1972. Still in 1986, these parties advocated a no vote in the
Single European Act referendum. Later, the Social Liberal Party changed to a strongly EU-positive party, and EU opposition within the Social Democratic Party faded. The Socialist People's Party were against the
Amsterdam Treaty in 1998 and
Denmark's joining the euro in 2000, but has become increasingly EU-positive, for example when MEP
Margrete Auken left the
European United Left–Nordic Green Left and joined
The Greens–European Free Alliance in 2004. In the
2014 European Parliament election, the
Danish People's Party came first by a large margin with 27% of the vote, gaining 2 extra seats for a total of 4 MEPs. The
People's Movement against the EU polled 8%, retaining its single MEP. In the
2019 European Parliament election, the
Danish People's Party lost around two-thirds of their previous vote share dropping from 4 seats to just 1. The
People's Movement against the EU lost their seat and the
Red-Green Alliance got one seat. The
2019 Danish general election saw the emergence of a new hard Eurosceptic party
Nye Borgerlige which supports Denmark leaving the EU. The party won four seats in parliament.
Estonia The
Independence Party and
Centre Party were against accession to the EU, but only the Independence Party still wants Estonia to withdraw from the EU. The
Conservative People's Party (EKRE) also has some Eurosceptic policies and increased its vote share from 4% in 2014 to 13% in the 2019 European Elections winning one seat.
Finland The largest Eurosceptic party in Finland is the
Finns Party. In the
European Parliament election, 2014, the Finns Party increased their vote share by 3% to 13%, adding a second MEP. With their 39 seats, the Finns Party are also the second-biggest party in the 200-seat Finnish
Eduskunta. In the
European Parliament election, 2019, the Finns Party increased their vote share slightly from 13% to 14% and retained their 2 seats. In its latest party platform written in 2019, the Finns Party is strongly opposed to further EU integration. The party proposes introducing a parallel currency within Finland in tandem with the Euro in order to phase out Finnish membership of the Eurozone and argues that while Finland is needed in the short-term in the European Parliament to defend Finland's interests, the country should also enact policies to help gradually withdraw Finland from the EU. During the
2018 Finnish presidential election, the Finns Party candidate
Laura Huhtasaari stated that her campaign would support exiting the EU.
France , prominent French MEP, former leader and former presidential candidate of the
National Front (France) and of the
Europe of Nations and Freedom group In France there are multiple parties that are Eurosceptic to different degrees, varying from advocating less EU intervention in national affairs, to advocating outright withdrawal from the EU and the Eurozone. These parties belong to all sides of the political spectrum, so the reasons for their Euroscepticism may differ. In the past many French people appeared to be uninterested in such matters, with only 40% of the French electorate voting in the
2009 European Parliament elections. Right-wing Eurosceptic parties include the
Gaullist Debout la République, and
Mouvement pour la France, which was part of
Libertas, a pan-European Eurosceptic party. In the
2009 European Parliament elections, Debout la République received 1.8% of the national vote, and Libertas 4.8%. In a similar way to some moderate parties, the French right and far-right in general are naturally opposed to the EU, as they criticise France's loss of political and economic sovereignty to a
supranational entity. Some of these hard Eurosceptic parties include the
Popular Republican Union and
The Patriots and formerly the
Front National (FN). Popular Republican Union seek France's withdrawal from the EU and the euro as well as France's withdrawal from NATO. The FN received 33.9% of the votes in the
2017 French presidential election, making it the largest Eurosceptic party in France. In June 2018, the National Front was renamed as National Rally (RN) and in 2019 dropped support for France leaving the European Union and the Eurozone from its manifesto, instead calling for "reform from within" the union. Eurosceptic parties on the left in France tend to criticise what they see as the
neoliberal agenda of the EU, as well as the elements of its structure which are undemocratic and seen as top-down. These parties include the
Parti de Gauche and the
French Communist Party, which formed the
Front de Gauche for the 2009 European Parliament elections and received 6.3% of the votes. The leader of the
Left Front defends a complete reform of the Monetary Union, rather than the withdrawal of France from the
Eurozone. Some of the major far-left Eurosceptic parties in France include the
New Anticapitalist Party which received 4.8% and
Lutte Ouvrière which received 1.2%. The
Citizen and Republican Movement, a left-wing Eurosceptic and
souverainist party, have not participated in any elections for the European Parliament. The party
Chasse, Pêche, Nature & Traditions, is an
agrarianist Eurosceptic party that says it is neither left nor right. In the
European Parliament election, 2014, the
National Front won the elections with 24.9% of the vote, a swing of 18.6%, winning 24 seats, up from 3 previously. The former French President
François Hollande had called for the EU to be reformed and for a scaling back of its power. In the
European Parliament election, 2019, the renamed
National Rally won the elections with 23.3% of the vote, winning 22 seats, down from 23 previously when their vote share was 24.9%.
Germany on saving the euro!"
2013 poster from the
Alternative for Germany (AfD) regarding Germany's financial contributions during the
Eurozone crisis Due to Chancellor
Angela Merkel often stating
There is no alternative in relation to her responses to the
Euro area crisis, the change of attitude towards
nuclear power phase-out in 2010 and again 2011, immigration and other policies, the German term (literally "alternative-less"; without alternative) became Germany's "
un-word of the year" in 2010. In February 2013, the
Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded, Germany's largest Eurosceptic party. Initially the AfD was a soft Eurosceptic "Party of Professors" and economists, that considered itself pro-Europe and pro-EU, but opposed the euro, which it believed had undermined European integration, and called for reforms to the
Eurozone. Despite being only a few months old, and having no candidates in half of the 299 constituencies, the new party almost won seats in the
2013 German Federal Election. In the
European Parliament election, 2014, the Alternative for Germany came 5th with 7% of the vote, winning 7 seats and becoming a member of the Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists Group. The AfD also went on to take seats in three state legislatures in the Autumn of 2014. The party became purely Eurosceptic in July 2015, with the
2015 European migrant crisis emerging, when an internal split occurred and leader Prof.
Bernd Lucke left to found a new soft Eurosceptic splinter party called
Alliance for Progress and Renewal that faded away. Under
Frauke Petry's AfD leadership and a more hard-line approach to the European Union, including its calling for an end for German
Eurozone membership, withdrawal from EU common asylum policies and significantly reducing the power of the EU with some AfD members supporting a complete exit from the EU altogether. In the
European Parliament election, 2019, the Alternative for Germany increased their vote share from 7% and 7 seats to 11% and 11 seats, rising with 15% and 15 seats to second place in
2024 as many small parties won shares and seats as the %5 threshold does not apply. In early September 2024, the AfD of
Björn Höcke with 32.8% emerged as the largest party in the state election of
Thuringia and was a close second in
Saxony. Under these circumstances the
2024 Brandenburg state election developed into a two horse race, between AfD, and anti-AfD voters rallying behind SPD. As a result, apart from the new BSW winning seats, only the CDU avoided an
Electoral wipeout, ending up as the fourth and smallest party in that state. After a near miss in 2013, a somewhat matured AfD was elected into the
German Parliament as
Leader of the Opposition with 94 seats in
September 2017., followed by a setback in the
2021 German Federal Election with lockdowns hampering their campaign.
In the February 2025 snap election AfD won 20.8% of the vote, 152 seats and second rank, while the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was dropped to third rank with just 16.4%, their worst result since 1887, while FDP and BSW suffered wipeouts. Since September 2025, in
Opinion polling for the next German federal election, AfD is leading ahead of the CDU/CSU of chancellor Merz.
Greece Golden Dawn,
Communist Party of Greece (KKE),
Greek Solution,
ANEL,
Course of Freedom,
Popular Unity, and
LAOS have been the main Eurosceptic parties in Greece. According to the
London School of Economics, Greece used to be the second most Eurosceptic country in the European Union, with 50% of Greeks thinking that their country has not benefited at all from the EU (only behind the UK). Meanwhile, 33% of Greeks viewed Greek membership in EU as a good thing, marginally ahead of the UK. 81% of Greeks felt that the EU was going in the wrong direction. These figures represented a major increase in Euroscepticism in Greece since 2009. In June 2012, the Eurosceptic parties in Greece that were represented in the parliament before the Election in January 2015 (ANEL, Golden Dawn, KKE) got 45.8% of the votes and 40.3% of the seats in the parliament. In the
legislative election of January 2015 the
pro-European (left and right-wing) parties (
ND,
PASOK,
Potami,
KIDISO,
EK and
Prasinoi-
DIMAR) got 43.3% of the votes. The Eurosceptic parties got 54.6%. The Eurosceptic left (
KKE,
ANTARSYA-MARS and
KKE (M–L)/
M–L KKE) got 42.6% of the votes and the Eurosceptic right (
Golden Dawn,
ANEL and
LAOS) got 12.1% of the votes, with Syriza ahead with 36.3%. The Eurosceptic parties got 194 seats in the new parliament and the pro-EU parties got 106 seats. According to the
polls conducted in June and July 2015 (12 polls), the Eurosceptic left would get on average 48.0% (excluding extraparliamentary parties as ANTARSYA-MARS and KKE (m–l)/ML-KKE), the parliamentary pro-EU parties (Potami, New Democracy and PASOK) would get 33.8%, the extra-parliamentary (not represented in the Hellenic Parliament) pro-EU parties (KIDISO and EK) would get 4.4% and the Eurosceptic right would get 10.2% (excluding extraparliamentary parties, such as
LAOS, not displayed on recent opinion polls). The soft Eurosceptic parties would get 42.3%, the hard Eurosceptic parties (including
KKE,
ANEL and
Golden Dawn) would get 15.9%, and the pro-EU parties (including extra-parliamentary parties displayed on opinion polls) would get 38.3% of the votes. In the
European Parliament election, 2014,
Syriza won the election with 26.6% of the vote (a swing of 21.9%) taking 6 seats (up 5), with
Golden Dawn coming 3rd taking 3 seats, the
Communist Party taking 2 seats and the
Independent Greeks gaining their first ever seat. Syriza's leader Tsipras said he's not anti-European and does not want to leave the euro. According to
The Economist, Tsipras is willing to negotiate with Greece's European partners, and it is believed a Syriza victory could encourage radical leftist parties across Europe. Alexis Tsipras vowed to reverse many of the austerity measures adopted by Greece since a series of bailouts began in 2010, at odds with the Eurogroup's positions. The government coalition in Greece was composed by Syriza and
ANEL (right-wing hard Eurosceptic party, led by
Panos Kammenos, who is the current Minister of Defence). Euroscepticism has softened in Greece as the economy improved. According to a research in early 2018, 68% of Greeks judge as positive the participation of Greece in the EU (instead of 53.5% in 2017). In the
European Parliament election, 2019, the New Democracy movement, beat the ruling left-wing Syriza formation with 33.1% and 23.8% of the vote respectively, maintaining Syriza's 6 seats and prompting the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to call a
legislative election on 7 July 2019. In this election, which was won by ND, the pro-European parties (ND, SYRIZA, KINAL, MeRA25, and the extra-parliamentary Union of Centrists and Recreate Greece) got 84.9% of the vote and the Eurosceptic parties (KKE, Greek Solution, the extraparliamentary Golden Dawn and a host of other small mainly left-wing parties) got 15.1%. That drastic change in the balance is mostly the result of SYRIZA abandoning Euroscepticism.
Hungary Viktor Orbán is the soft Eurosceptic
Prime Minister of Hungary for the national-conservative
Fidesz Party. Another Eurosceptic party that was present in Hungary was
Jobbik, which until around 2016, was identified as a
radical and
far-right party. Those far-right factions, who left Jobbik, decided to form the
Our Homeland Movement party. In 2015, 39% of the Hungarian population had a positive image of the EU, 20% had a negative image, and 40% neutral (1% "Don't know"). In the
European Parliament election, 2019, Fidesz consolidated their position by increasing their vote share to 51.5% and adding a seat to take their tally to 13. Former Eurosceptic (now pro-European) Jobbik dropped to 6.3% of the votes, losing 2 of its 3 seats. The
Momentum Movement, a newly created pro-European party, came 3rd with 9.3% of the vote, with the strongly pro-European
Democratic Coalition coming second with 16.1% of the vote.
Our Homeland Movement got 3.3% of the votes, gaining no seats.
Ireland Euroscepticism is a minority view in
Ireland, with opinion polls from 2016 to 2018 indicating growing support for EU membership, moving from 70% to 92% in that time. The
Irish people initially voted against ratifying the Nice and Lisbon Treaties. Following renegotiations, second referendums on both were passed with approximately 2:1 majorities in both cases. Some commentators and smaller political groups questioned the validity of the Irish Government's decision to call second referendums. The left-wing
Irish republican party
Sinn Féin expresses
soft Eurosceptic positions on the current structure of the European Union and the direction in which it is moving. The party expresses, "support for Europe-wide measures that promote and enhance human rights, equality and
the all-Ireland agenda", but has a "principled opposition" to a
European superstate. In its manifesto for the
2015 UK general election, Sinn Féin pledged that the party would campaign for the UK to stay within the EU. In
the 2019 European Parliament election, Sinn Féin won one seat and 11.7% of the vote, down 7.8%. The
Socialist Party, a
Trotskyist organisation, supports Ireland leaving the EU and supported the
Brexit result. It argues that the European Union is institutionally capitalist and neoliberal. The Socialist Party campaigned against the Lisbon and Nice Treaties and favours the foundation of an alternative Socialist European Union.
Italy The
Five Star Movement (M5S), an
anti-establishment movement founded by comedian
Beppe Grillo, originally set itself out as a Eurosceptic party. The M5S received 25.5% of vote in the
2013 general election, becoming the largest anti-establishment and Eurosceptic party in Europe. The party used to advocate a non-binding referendum on the withdrawal of Italy from the
Eurozone (but not from the European Union) and the return to the
lira. Since then, the party has toned down its eurosceptic rhetoric The party won 6.2% of the vote in the
2014 European Parliament elections, but two of its leading members are presidents of
Lombardy and
Veneto (where Lega gained 40.9% of the vote in
2015). with the Eurosceptic economists
Claudio Borghi Aquilini,
Alberto Bagnai and
Antonio Maria Rinaldi during the
No Euro Day in Milan, 2013. All economists were later elected MPs in different assemblies. In the
2014 European Parliament election the Five Star Movement came second, with 17 seats and 21.2% of the vote after contesting EP seats for the first time. Northern League had five seats and
The Other Europe with Tsipras had three seats. Other minor Eurosceptic organizations include right-wing political parties (e.g.,
Brothers of Italy,
Tricolour Flame,
New Force,
National Front,
CasaPound,
National Movement for Sovereignty, the
No Euro Movement), far-left political parties (e.g., the
Communist Party of
Marco Rizzo, the
Italian Communist Party and the political movement
Power to the People) and other political movements (e.g., the Sovereignist Front,
MMT Italy). In addition, the European Union is criticized (especially for the
austerity and the creation of the euro) by some left-wing thinkers, like the
trade unionist Giorgio Cremaschi and the journalist
Paolo Barnard, and some
academics, such as
Alberto Bagnai the philosopher
Diego Fusaro. According to the Standard
Eurobarometer 87 conducted by the
European Commission in spring 2017, 48% of Italians tend not to trust the
European Union compared to 36% of Italians who do. In the
2019 European election, the Italian Eurosceptic and
souverainist right-wing, represented in large part by the League, increased its number of seats in the EP, but was not assigned any presidency in the
committees of the European Parliament. Despite its national political alliance with the League during the
Conte Cabinet, the
Five Star Movement voted for
Ursula von der Leyen, member of pro-EU
Christian Democratic Union of Germany, as
President of the European Commission. In July 2020, senator
Gianluigi Paragone formed
Italexit, a new political party with a main goal to withdraw Italy from the European Union.
Latvia The
National Alliance (
For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK/
All for Latvia!),
Union of Greens and Farmers and
For Latvia from the Heart are parties that are described by some political commentators as bearing soft Eurosceptic views. A small hard Eurosceptic party exists, but it has failed to gain any administrative seats throughout history of its existence.
Lithuania The
Order and Justice party had mainly Eurosceptic views.
Luxembourg The
Alternative Democratic Reform Party is a soft Eurosceptic party. It is a member of the
Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists.
Malta In the 2000s, the
Labour Party (MLP/PL) was vehemently opposed to
Malta entering the European Union. Instead of EU membership, the PL was in favour of a partnership with the EU in the broader context of the
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed). After a long battle, a majority of the electorate voted to join the EU in the
2003 referendum and the
Nationalist Party (PN) led by
Eddie Fenech Adami, which took a pro-European stance, won the
subsequent election. This led Malta to become one of the states to enter the European Union on 1 May 2004. Current-day Eurosceptic forces in Maltese politics are
far-right parties such as the
Maltese Brotherhood and
Imperium Europa. According to Mark Harwood, Euroscepticism in Malta has moved from being a
leftist stance in the early 2000s, connected to opposition to the EU's forced adoption of
neoliberal policies such as
austerity, towards a position that is more concerned with far-right talking points such as
anti-immigrant sentiment in the 2010s. Historically, the Netherlands have been a very pro-European country, being one of the six founding members of the
European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, and campaigning with much effort to include the United Kingdom into the Community in the 1970s and others after that. It has become slightly more Eurosceptic in the 2000s,
rejecting the European Constitution in 2005 and complaining about the relatively high financial investment into the Union or the democratic deficit amongst other issues. A number of hard and soft eurosceptic parties have politicians elected to the Dutch House of Representatives and European Parliament which include: • The nationalist
Party for Freedom (founded in 2006) is a hard-eurosceptic party and wants the Netherlands to leave the EU in its entirety, because it believes the EU is undemocratic, costs money and cannot close the borders for immigrants. • The conservative and right-wing populist
Forum for Democracy (FvD) party was originally founded by
Thierry Baudet as a think tank to campaign against the
Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine. In 2016, the FvD was established as a fully fledged party. It is opposed to many of the policies of the
European Union and calls for a referendum on Dutch membership in which it would endorse withdrawal. • The conservative-liberal
JA21 party (founded in 2021 as a splinter from the FvD) is opposed to Dutch participation several
European Union agreements, including its immigration and asylum policies, and believes Dutch identity and self-determination should be prioritized above the EU. It supports Dutch withdrawal from the
Eurozone and for the Netherlands to exit EU treaties it deems a threat to national sovereignty. • The
Socialist Party believes the European Union has already brought Europe 50 years of peace and prosperity and argues that European co-operation is essential for tackling global problems like climate change and international crime. The SP opines that the current Union is dominated by the big businesses and the big countries, while the labour movement, consumer organisations and smaller companies are often left behind. "Neoliberal" measures have supposedly increased social inequality, and perhaps the Union is expanding too fast and taking on too much power in issues that should be dealt with on a national level. • The conservative Protestant
Reformed Political Party and the
Christian Union favour co-operation within Europe, but reject a superstate, especially one that is dominated by Catholics, or that infringes on religious rights and/or privileges. • The pensioner's interest party
50PLUS is moderately Eurosceptic. • The ecologist
Party for the Animals favours European co-operation, but believes the current EU does not respect animal rights enough and should have a more active policy on environment protection. • The agrarian and rural interests
Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) was founded in 2019 and is a soft-eurosceptic party. It supports membership of the EU for economic and trade purposes, but argues the political power of the EU should be stripped back so the bloc is closer to the model of the former EEC, wants reforms made to the Eurozone and is against the EU becoming a superstate. A prominent former Eurosceptic party in the Netherlands was the
Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) established by politician and academic
Pim Fortuyn in 2002. The party campaigned to reduce Dutch financial contributions to the EU, was against Turkish membership and opposed what it saw as the excessive bureaucracy and threat to national sovereignty posed by the EU. During the
2002 general election, the LPF polled in second place with 17% of the vote. Following the assassination of Fortuyn in the run-up to the election, support for the party declined soon after and it was disbanded in 2008 with many of its former supporters transferring to the
Party for Freedom. Despite these concerns, in 2014 the majority of the Dutch electorate continued to support parties that favour ongoing European integration: the
Social Democrats, the
Christian Democrats, the
Liberals, but most of all the
(Liberal) Democrats. In 2016, a substantial majority in a low-turnout referendum rejected the ratification of an EU trade and association treaty with
Ukraine. In the
2019 European Parliament election, Eurosceptic parties had mixed results with
Geert Wilders'
Party for Freedom losing all 4 of its seats taking only 3.5% of the vote. The new
Forum for Democracy established in late 2016 took 11.0% of the vote and entered the European Parliament with 3 seats.
Poland The main parties with Eurosceptic views are
Law and Justice (PiS),
United Poland (SP) and the
Confederation Liberty and Independence and the main Eurosceptic politicians include
Ryszard Bender,
Andrzej Grzesik,
Krzysztof Bosak,
Dariusz Grabowski,
Janusz Korwin-Mikke,
Marian Kowalski,
Paweł Kukiz,
Zbigniew Ziobro,
Anna Sobecka,
Robert Winnicki,
Artur Zawisza, and
Stanisław Żółtek. Former president of Poland
Lech Kaczyński resisted giving his signature on behalf of Poland to the
Treaty of Lisbon, objecting specifically to the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Subsequently, Poland got an
opt-out from this charter. As Polish President, Kaczyński also opposed the Polish government's intentions to join the euro. , Polish Prime Minister
Mateusz Morawiecki and
Jarosław Kaczyński, 9 April 2018 In 2015, it was reported that Euroscepticism was growing in Poland, which was thought to be due to the "economic crisis, concern over perceived interference from Brussels and migration". Polish president
Andrzej Duda indicated that he wished for Poland to step back from further EU integration. He suggested that the country should "hold a referendum on joining the euro, resist further integration and fight the EU's green policies", despite getting the largest share of EU cash. In the
2019 European Parliament election, the Law and Justice party won the largest number of seats, with a vote share increase up from 31.8% to 45.4%, increasing its seats from 19 to 27. . Polish fishermen protest against the
EU's prohibition of cod fishing on Polish ships. In 2019, the former
MEP Stanisław Żółtek created a political party called PolEXIT, whose flagship ideology is Euroscepticism. Its candidate for
president of Poland in the
2020 elections was the party's leader, Żółtek, who got 45 419 votes (0.23%), ranking 7th out of 11 candidates and did not qualify to the second round.
Portugal The main Eurosceptic parties in Portugal are
Chega, the
Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), and
Left Bloc (BE). Opinion polling in Portugal in 2015 indicated that 48 per cent tended not to trust the EU, The Eurosceptic parties remained unrepresented in the
2019 European Parliament election. The soft Eurosceptic
Alliance for the Union of Romanians, which was founded in September 2019, entered the Romanian parliament in 2020.
Slovakia Parties with Eurosceptic views are the
Slovak National Party,
Republic,
We Are Family,
People's Party Our Slovakia. Prominent Slovak Eurosceptic politicians include
Andrej Danko,
Milan Uhrík,
Boris Kollár,
Marian Kotleba. In the
2024 European Parliament election, Republic came 3rd securing 12.5% and winning their first 2 seats in the European Parliament.
Slovenia Parties with mainly Eurosceptic views are
Slovenian National Party and
The Left. Neither won seats in the
2019 European Parliament election in Slovenia.
Spain , leader of
Vox The process of Europeanization changed during the years in
Spain. In 1986 Spain entered in the
European Community. Since then, Spain has been one of the most Europeanist countries. Therefore, when Spain became part of the European Community, the country had a strong
pro-Europeanist feeling, according to
Eurobarometer, as it reflected a 60% of the population. In Spain different reasons explain its entrance to the European Community. On the one hand, democracy has just been established in Spain after
Francisco Franco dictatorship. On the other hand, the main objectives of Spain were to achieve
economic development, and also a social modernization. Spain was one of the few countries to vote Yes for the European Constitution in a referendum in February 2005, though by a lower margin in
Catalonia and the
Basque Country. In 2008, after the
financial crisis reached Spain, the percentage of pro European persons started to fall. Thus, during the five years of the economic crisis, the Eurobarometer shows how the trust in the EU increasingly fell in Spain, and the confidence of the Spanish citizens in the European Union decreased for more than 50 points. Spain became one of the most Eurosceptic countries among all European Union Members, as it happened in pretty much European countries, where nationalist and eurosceptic characterised parties became stronger. The historical two-parties system, composed by the conservative
Partido Popular and the social-democratic
Partido Socialista Obrero Español, collapsed. In the 2000s, the liberal
Ciudadanos and leftist party
Podemos became part of the political context, gaining electoral consensus, followed years later by
ultranationalist party
Vox. The new parties were the effect of the disaffection of most Spaniards towards politics and politicians, that increased for several reasons: firstly,
corruption at all political levels, reaching the
Royal Family too; secondly, recession intensified distrust of the population towards national government; thirdly, a phase of renovation of the
autonomous regions which extended the distance between the National government and the Regional ones.
Candidatura d'Unitat Popular, a left-wing to far-left political party with about 1,300 members advocates independence for
Catalonia outside of the European Union. Up to 2014 European elections, there were no Spanish parties present in the Eurosceptic groups at the European Parliament. In the
2015 Spanish general election,
Podemos became the first left-wing Eurosceptic political party to win seats in the
Congress of Deputies, obtaining 69 seats, and in the
2019 Spanish general election,
Vox became the first far-right Eurosceptic political party to win seats in the
Congress of Deputies, obtaining 24 seats.
Sweden At least until the mid-1980s, the
Swedish Social Democrats were largely hostile to the European integration. In the mid-1970s, the Swedish Prime Minister
Olof Palme opposed the European integration, criticizing the
European communities for being based on four "Cs": He called them "conservative" and "capitalist", seeing it as bad for the labor, "clerical" for being dominated by the
Christian democrats, and "colonialist" for helping to "restore French and Belgian control in Africa". The
Left Party of Sweden is against accession to the eurozone and previously wanted Sweden to leave the European Union until 2019. The new party program, adapted in 2024, is highly EU-critical but states that an EU-withdrawal is only a "last option". Their youth organization
Young Left is still campaigning for Sweden to leave the EU. The nationalist and
right-wing populist party
Sweden Democrats (SD) supports closer political, economic and military cooperation with neighboring Nordic and certain Northern European countries, but strongly oppose further EU integration and further transfers of Swedish sovereignty to the EU as a whole. The party is also against Swedish accession to the eurozone, the creation of a combined EU military budget and want to renegotiate Swedish membership of the
Schengen Agreement. The SD also want a constitutional amendment to require that all EU treaties must be voted on by the Swedish public first and that if the EU cannot be reformed and assumes more power at the expense of national sovereignty Sweden must exit the bloc. The
June List, a Eurosceptic list consisting of members from both the political right and left won three seats in the 2004 Elections to the European Parliament and sat in the EU-critical
IND/DEM group in the European Parliament. The movement favours a withdrawal from the EU. Around 75% of the
Riksdag members represent parties that officially supports the Sweden membership. In the
European Parliament election, 2014, the
Sweden Democrats gained 2 seats with 9.7% of the vote, up 6.4%, and the
Left Party took one seat with 6.3% of the vote. In the
European Parliament election, 2019, the
Sweden Democrats increased from 2 to 3 seats with 15.3% of the vote, up from 9.7%, and the
Left Party retained its one seat with 6.8% of the vote. In winter 2019–2020, in connection with the request from "poor" member countries of much higher membership fees for "rich" member countries, for the reason of keeping support levels so "poor" countries would not suffer from
Brexit, where a "rich" country left the union in part due to high membership fees, a media and social media debate for a "Swexit" increased. This was still rejected by parties representing a majority of the parliament, with the
COVID-19 pandemic quickly taking over the debate. == In other European countries ==