The Coronavirus Crisis as Catalyst for EU Legitimacy? Italian Public Opinion and the EU during the Pandemic

Over the past few years, the EU has been challenged by multiple disintegration forces sustained by a growing number of Eurosceptic citizens. In this critical scenario, Italy has emerged as a relevant case because of its transformation from a leading pro-integration country to a country where EU integration is an increasingly divisive issue. We explore the relationship between Italian public opinion and the EU, with a specific interest in understanding how the coronavirus crisis may affect such a relationship, supposing that our case study may also be revealing as to how a crisis context can produce effects on the popular legitimacy of the EU. We show that in Italy there is demand from some majoritarian segments of society for stronger cooperation in the EU. To explain the apparent paradox of why Italians decreasingly feel that their country benefits from the EU but still want to increase EU cooperation in certain areas, we turn to the argument of the public's instrumental approach to the principle of burden-sharing: citizens support deeper integration to face the costs of the most pressing crises affecting the country and the EU at large.

近年来，欧盟(EU)面临多重分裂势力的挑战，这些势力的背后是规模不断扩大的疑欧派民众。在此严峻背景下，意大利成为极具代表性的研究案例：该国从欧盟一体化的坚定支持国，转变为欧盟一体化议题日益引发社会分歧的国家。本研究聚焦意大利民众舆论与欧盟的互动关系，重点探究新冠疫情危机如何影响二者间的关联；同时期望本案例研究亦可揭示危机情境如何作用于欧盟的民众合法性(popular legitimacy)。研究结果显示，意大利社会部分主流群体呼吁欧盟强化更深层次的合作。为解释这一看似矛盾的现象——即意大利民众愈发认为本国未能从欧盟获益，却仍希望在特定领域深化欧盟合作——本研究引入公众对欧盟责任分担(burden-sharing)原则的工具性视角：民众支持深化欧盟一体化，意在共同应对当前波及本国及整个欧盟的最紧迫危机所带来的各类成本。