Bonding through crises: how the EU social dimension fuels and counteracts Euroscepticism

The EU relies on bonds of loyalty that create a political community among member states and citizens. The relevance of the social dimension for both polity contestation and polity maintenance has, however, been neglected. We fill this gap by evaluating to what extent the EU’s (social) policy responses to crises contributed to contain Euroscepticism – or failed to do so. We examine how EU polity challengers (radical parties both on the right and the left) have capitalised on the weakness of the EU’s social dimension to discursively oppose the polity in the euro, refugee, COVID-19 and Ukraine crises. We argue that polity contestation goes beyond challengers’ preoccupation with shrinking national sovereignty and includes compelling criticism of the EU as an ‘uncaring’ actor. Thus, EU polity maintenance hinges on the ability of EU elites to put forth a positive vision of bonding and offer increased social security for citizens.