The rise of anti-EU populism

rise in most European countries – North and South, East and West – and that they resort to anti-EU rhetoric to increase their political and electoral support. The combination of the global financial and economic crises (since 2008) with the specifically European sovereign debt crisis (since 2010) has only strengthened this trend. It is equally undeniable that mainstream parties now embrace some elements of that rhetoric. They use it both to hold and to win-back supporters and to strengthen their hand in EU-level negotiations, but they achieve meagre results in both areas.