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Euroscepticism is a phenomenon of recent years and one of the biggest challenges for the European Union. The successful Brexit referendum has reinforced these tendencies. Marine Le Pen is one of the most vocal critics of European integration on the continent. However, in the last ten years, the National Rally has markedly rethought its position on fundamental issues of European politics. The idea of leaving the European Union has been definitively abandoned, and neither is leaving the common European currency. Instead, the National Rally focuses on criticising globalism and calls for protectionist economic measures under the pretext of environmental protection. It thus continues the ongoing transformation policy of dediabolisation, which is designed to increase the party's electoral potential. This bachelor thesis analyses the electoral changes in the National Rally's European politics, explains their causes and then analyses the different steps according to the three-dimensional typology of euroscepticism of political scientist Sofia Vasilopoulou. It further demonstrates that Euroscepticism cannot be perceived monolithically and presents the reasons that make it difficult for Eurosceptic parties to form coalitions to reform the EU.

This diploma thesis deals with the approach of Czech populist political entities, the ANO 2011 movement, the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement (SPD) and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) to the European Union (EU) in connection with the coronavirus crisis. These parties are examined by discursive analysis based on debates of its members in the lower house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic - the Chamber of Deputies. The thesis revealed that despite the Eurosceptic nature of all examined parties, their approach to the EU was not the same. The parties that were in the reviewed period in the opposition, the SPD movement, and KSČM - were critical to the EU at almost all examined points. They asked the government to act at the national level and used nearly identical arguments. The ANO government movement had more moderate rhetoric toward the EU, and in some cases, it even positioned itself as a defender of the EU policies. The only person criticizing the EU in the ANO movement turned out to be Andrej Babiš, whose statements toward the EU became more and more acute with the upcoming elections to the Chamber of Deputies.

This essay compares two distinct concepts of a cleavage line - transnational and periphery- centre. The research uses the comparative method. Both concepts will first be contrasted theoretically (comparison of differing theories) and later empirically (through differences in their manifestation into political parties). The results from the comparison of several theories suggest shared traits between both theories, but with a few key differences. Based on data from European political parties, the author of this thesis concludes, that these differences are a result of incorrectly defining the concept of transnational cleavage. Firstly, the cleavage is not yet entirely formed and secondly was not the main impulse for the rise of green parties, which is the main difference between both concepts. This forming cleavage has to be distinguished from a third concept, which is a periphery-centre cleavage on the European level. Author of this essay argues that the conflict within the European Union is a result of cross-cutting between two periphery-centre cleavages on different levels. First has a global reach (which is why it's wrongly labelled as transnational), while the second is only happening in Europe. The two cleavages are distinguished by contrasting centers, but the peripheral protest against these...

The thesis deals in the theoretical part with a presentation and comparison of views of political science on party-political euroscepticism, including a description of the development of the form of eurosceptic factions in the European Parliament after 2014 and political subjects associated in them. Practical part presents, analyzes and interprets the voting of these political entities in the election periods 2014-2019 and 2019-2024, especially in terms of their coherence within individual factions. Both in general (overall average coherence) and by individual thematic agendas. In its outputs, the work tries, based on the obtained data, to answer the question, what are the dominant common ideological characteristics of the eurosceptic political parties represented in the European Parliament and whether they form, or can form, a separate so-called party-political family. Keywords: Euroscepticism, European Union, European Parliament, factions, political parties, populism, elections Title: Eurosceptic Political Parties Factions in the European Parliament: constitution, form, political activity and changes in the context of the European Parliament elections 2019

This bachelor thesis deals with populism in the Czech Republic, specifically on the examples of the Dawn of Direct Democracy and Freedom and Direct Democracy. The first part of this thesis outlines the theory of populism, followed by an approach to the business past of the founder and leader of both political subjects, Tomio Okamura. The next chapter explores the creation and development of the Dawn, and the reasons for the departure of its chairman are examined. The third chapter maps the approach of Freedom and Direct Democracy from its foundation to the present. Besides other things, there is space for the internal party organisation and the programme goals; even the political marketing is not left out. Last but not least, the thesis focuses on analysing the elections in which the party during its existence participated.

The current discussion about party-based Euroscepticism forms in the Federal Republic of Germany is usually limited to the Alternative für Deutschland issue and neglect inside-parties forms before its formation. This master thesis examines this type of Euroscepticism in Germany in relevant political parties between 1990 and 2013. This period is defined by the time between German reunification and the formation of the AfD. The term 'Euroscepticism' is conceptualized in the theoretical section, and theories defined by selected scholars are reflected. Subsequently, the theoretical section reflects the perception of Euroscepticism as a thin- centered ideology, its applications in the left-right dimension, and focus on 'new cleavages' GAL/TAN theory. This section emphasizes a deficiency of 'classic' hard-soft Euroscepticism theory and reveals empirical limits of any typologies. The author uses the methodology of content analysis of program papers (PDS/Die Linke, Die Grünen, SPD, and CSU) in the empirical section. Its corpus is defined by the program thesis for Bundestag and European Parliament elections. The coding divides analyzing statements into logical topic groups, which correspond to a subject of research. The synthesis of this coding introduces a clear image of EU attitudes by every single party,...

The thesis deals with analysis of parties′ documents of four Czech Eurosceptic political parties. The goal is to divide political parties into groups of different levels of Euroscepticism, based on attitudes of political party to European Integration according to typology of Euroscepticism by Paul Taggart and Aleks Szczerbiak. Authors made division of "soft" and "hard" Euroscepticism, which divides political parties by depth of negative positions and attitudes towards European Integration and European union. Furthermore, the thesis answers several research questions and hypothesis. Thesis analyses party documents for election to European Parliament in 2014 and 2019. Examined political actors are Communist party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Free Citizens Party (SSO), and Dawn of Direct Democracy - Tomio Okamura (Dawn)/Freedom and Direct Democracy- Tomio Okamura (SPD). Because of the principal role of leader, SPD is considered for the ongoing Dawn movement in this thesis. Keywords : Euroscepticism, Czech political parties, party documents Title: Euroscepticism of Czech Political Parties

The Czech Republic is often said to be a Eurosceptic country. These opinions mainly come from the results of public opinion polls, as, for example, the election results do not show higher success of Eurosceptic parties and, after all, the referendum on the Czech Republic's accession to the EU has a positive result. Skeptical opinions may rather show in a lack of interest in European issues, poor awareness, or low participation in the European elections, where the Czech Republic has had one of the lowest participations for a long time. It is the primary goal of this diploma thesis to find out what role the print media play in these moods and whether some of them may be labeled as Eurosceptic. Another goal is to verify the presented theory of Euroscepticism and the relevance of its defined actors, and also to find new, previously undefined Eurosceptics.

This diploma thesis examines the suitability of generalization of the populist radical right parties (PRRP). In recent years, these parties have succeeded on the political scene of many European countries. Using the example of "new" Svoboda a přímá demokracie (SPD) political party and the established Danish People's Party (DF) it shows the differences in the party pre-election rhetoric and program, which are brought about by parties' age as well as by different historical developments in the respective countries. The historical context has affected contemporary political environment and, therefore, there are reasonable doubts about the generalization of the PRRPs. This is especially the case of post-communist countries, which, after years of oppression, had to go through a process of transformation that involved not only economic issues. This thesis is based on the Lipset's and Rokkan's cleavages theory, while it tries to confirm its existence in the given states, namely the economical, the religious, the center - periphery and the urban - rural cleavage. The inclusion of six tested factors in the analysis helps to do this. The multiple linear regression analysis tested which factors (the factors are socio-cultural, socio-economic, and demographic factors) have a statistically significant...

This diploma thesis deals with a political program of Strana svobodných občanů. Firstly, the methodology used in this thesis is explored in the first chapter. Then, in the second chapter are defined and described relevant theoretical concepts. These are the concepts of Euroscepticism, anarchocapitalism and libertarianism. In the case of Euroscepticism, a typology by a French political scientist Cécile Leconte is used as well because Euroscepticism is a very complex term. In the next chapter there are described relevant aspects of political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů. The fourth chapter, with help of content analysis of the Strana svobodných občanů program, answers to all of the research questions: To what extent is Euroscepticism present in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů? How the presence of Euroscepticism in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů evolved since the founding of the party to the present? To what extent is anarchocapitalism present in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů? How the presence of anarchocapitalism in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů evolved since the founding of the party to the present? To what extent is libertarianism present in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů? How...

In a time of rising Euroscepticism across Europe, diffuse support for the European Union (EU) is an especially important concept as it provides a source of stability for the EU. How important is childhood political socialization for the development of diffuse support? The extant literature emphasizes the role of childhood socialization. However, these studies are based on analyses that cannot fully distinguish between the cohort effect and the life-cycle effect. This study overcomes this limitation by looking at a more suitable case (the European Union) and by using a novel technique that effectively distinguishes the cohort effect from the life-cycle effect. The findings show that individuals who experienced early life political socialization in the EU have equal levels of diffuse support as individuals who grew up outside the EU. I thus argue that diffuse support develops through experience in adult life, and childhood political socialization is not essential for its development.

The diploma thesis Brexit and its implications for European integration uses the method of explanatory case study in an effort to analyze the causes and impacts of the Great Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. The thesis therefore examines the historical context of the complicated relations between Great Britain and the European Communities from their formation in the 1950s to the present, which ultimately led to the historic step of United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020. The thesis then maps the negotiations regarding the Withdrawal Agreement and the future arrangement of mutual relations, which took place between 2016 - 2020. The effects of the UK's withdrawal from the EU on the composition and functioning of the European institutions and the impact of the changes on the remaining member states are also analyzed. In addition, the work presents possible arrangements of economic relations between the two parties, which are currently the subject of negotiations between the UK and the EU during the transitional period from 1 February 2020 to 31 December 2020. Lastly, the thesis works with the White Paper presented by the European Commission in 2017 in order to analyze five possible scenarios for the future development of European integration. For this, the thesis...

Eurosceptic ideas in the Czech Republic (hereinafter the “ČR”) began to spread more especially since the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and they strengthened with increasing global problems, which did not help this sentiment in any way. Negative politicians' opinions regarding the EU may eventually undermine the confidence of Czech citizens in the EU and therefore have an impact on the overall relationship of the ČR with this European political-economic union. The thesis will offer a list and analysis of specific Eurosceptic topics in the ČR. The research will examine the current political situation in the ČR in relation to Euroscepticism, and its results will reflect on how Euroscepticism is manifested in the political discourse of the Czech political parties that were, in the 2017 parliamentary elections, elected into the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament. The thesis will analyze the Eurosceptic situation in the ČR at the political level in 2018 and will focus on the negative references regarding the EU, which were mentioned by the above Czech political parties.

This thesis analyzes how the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the European Union was portrayed in selected Czech and German printed media throughout the year 2018 and investigates whether Euroscepticism - in its widest sense - expresses itself within the articles. The research on Euroscepticism in media so far has largely focused on "historic" events and "significant" questions of the European integration, not on technical-legal topics, i.e. topics with presumably lesser impact on the future course of the European project. An analysis of Euroscepticism in media texts dealing with a specific EU legislative act has so far been lacking. The paper at hand therefore examines whether Euroscepticism manifests itself also in connection to such topics. As denying and/or criticizing EU's policies is accepted by most academics as an expression of Euroscepticism, next to denying the EU as such, this study defines Euroscepticism as any criticism on part of the EU and the GDPR, since this regulation can be understood as embodiment of EU's policy on data protection. The paper uses a comparative research design, using the method of content analysis of six printed daily newspapers, namely Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bild, Mladá fronta DNES, Právo, and Blesk. The results...

Euroscepticism has recently started to enjoy a renaissance, boasting many different works in different formats whether it be a comparative study of two European countries or, investigating Euroscepticism in different national contexts to account for possible variations of Euroscepticism. This work aims to show the contrary. Using country case studies of the Czech Republic and the UK, this paper shows that regardless of temporal differences and differences in national contexts, Euroscepticism is intrinsically linked to some lines of argument concerning economy and democracy.

This diploma thesis deals with a political program of Strana svobodných občanů. Firstly, the methodology used in this thesis is explored in the first chapter. Then, in the second chapter are defined and described relevant theoretical concepts. These are the concepts of Euroscepticism, anarchocapitalism and libertarianism. In the case of Euroscepticism, a typology by a French political scientist Cécile Leconte is used as well because Euroscepticism is a very complex term. In the next chapter there are described relevant aspects of political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů. The fourth chapter, with help of content analysis of the Strana svobodných občanů program, answers to all of the research questions: To what extent is Euroscepticism present in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů? How the presence of Euroscepticism in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů evolved since the founding of the party to the present? To what extent is anarchocapitalism present in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů? How the presence of anarchocapitalism in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů evolved since the founding of the party to the present? To what extent is libertarianism present in the political philosophy of Strana svobodných občanů? How...

The Bachelor thesis deals with the phenomenon of Euroscepticism, which is demonstrated by the example of two political parties. The subject of the analysis are the German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Czech party Freedom and Direct Democracy - Tomio Okamura (SPD). The thesis firstly addresses Euroscepticism in general, observing and comparing the level of public Euroscepticism in Germany and the Czech Republic. Subsequently, both political groups are categorized with the help of three presented theoretical concepts. Special emphasis is placed on historical development of AfD and SPD, which serves as a basis for exploring the motivation to establish them. Based on the analysis and comparison of the respective electoral programs to the European and national elections, the thesis compares the program priorities with regard to the attitude towards European integration. The current European Parliament election programs 2019, together with a record of personal interviews with party representatives, allow us to describe their ideal vision of the European cooperation.

This bachelor thesis is analyzing media representation of the United Kigdom Independent Party in selected printed british media from the beginning of the year 2016 until the date of the United Kigdom European membership referendum, which happened on Thursday 23 June, 2016 and became known as brexit. The paper is examining how many times were the selected topics used with connection to the Party, as well as the culmination of these topics in individual months and the media representations created by the medias, based on these articles. Through the short history of the Party this work contains explanation of all the concepts, which are connected with the analysis. That one is done based on the two chosen themes, populism and euroscepticism. These topics were searched in the printed weekday newspapers The Sun, Daily Mail and The Daily Mirror. These tabloids were selected based on the newspaers circulation in the selected period and also their political inclination. The paper analyzes all the articles from the period, which contain any mantion about the party, speifically UKIP, or United Kongdom Independence Party, which was 565 articles. The research was done using the the content analysis methodology, which aim was to see what was the ratio of the populism and the eurosceptism topics in the articles...

The presented diploma thesis focuses on the attitudes of selected youth political organizations in the Czech Republic towards the European Union and the process of European integration. It takes in account the fact that youth political organizations can be identified as agents of political socialization as well as it is possible to study them within the broader term of political participation (to study their influence on attitudes and opinions of their members). The analysis concerns selected eight Czech youth political organizations, Mladí sociální demokraté (the Young Social Democrats), Mladí konzervativci (the Young Conservatives), TOP tým, Mladé ANO, Mladí zelení (the Young Greens), Mladí lidovci, Mladí křesťanští demokraté (the Young Christian Democrats) and mSTAN. The theoretical basis for the analysis is Euroscepticism, specifically the typology of C. Flood and S. Usherwood is used. This typology, with six possible positions, is linked to six scenarios of possible development, based on the five scenarios presented by the European Commission in 2017 as part of the White Paper on the future of Europe and its further direction. Compatibility of both scales is tested. The necessary data collected via questionnaire survey. The thesis concludes that youth political organizations are relevant...

Populism is a phenomenon, which popularity rise over the Europe, enhanced by immigration and economic situation in some of the EU countries. This thesis is trying to analyze, how much was the populist rhetoric chosen as a strategy to be used by United Kingdom Independent Party in-between 2014-2016 and it is done via the frames the British newspapers gave to the UKIP in the articles and the number of repetition of chosen populist topic in these articles. To settle some basis definitions, the thesis contains short history of the party, an attempt to define populism with emphasis on right wing populism and the brief overview of British Euroscepticism of last 40 years. The quantitative analysis is using articles from The Guardian, The Telegraph and BBC News. The research is done on 50 most relevant articles through the years 2014-2016 connected to one of the topics - Euroscepticism, immigration, antiestablishment and organizational changes within the party. It is trying to prove, whether the tendency to use these populist topics by the party was rising and if it could be marked as party strategy. I tried to prove this by the number of the articles aimed on one of the topics and the reflection of the media analyses way of framing the party.

This thesis analyzes media representation of the United Kingdom Independence Party between the years 2014 and 2016 in selected British media where it follows keywords used by these medias in the articles about the party and whether these themes can be identified as key topics in the context of media-generated frame and where, based on these frames, place these medias the party in the political spectrum of the United Kingdom. Despite the brief history of the United Kingdom Independence Party, the work contains chapters about right-wing populism and Euroscepticism. This is followed by an analysis of selected British media based on four keywords. The media, which have been used for the analysis were The Guardian, The Telegraph and BBC News. The chosen keywords were - Euroscepticism, immigration, criticism of the political system (antiestablishment) and organizational change within the party. It examines the 50 most relevant articles with these keywords from 2014-2016 and the tendency of thir usage. The result is an analysis of the frequency of these topics, showing the development, with the result, that they have been identified as the basic themes that all the three media use in the articles about the party. Second result is an overview of what media frames of a party were created and where these...

The main goal of a bachelor thesis called Euroscepticism and Fragmentation in the British Conservative Party 2015-2017 is to analyse fragmentation in Conservative Party caused by different opinions on how to deal with the European question on four main events that occurred in those years. It also attempts to answer whether and how the party Euroscepticism has changed. The events used for the analysis are the general election in 2015, the referendum concerning the British membership in European Union in 2016, the intra party election in the same year and the general election in 2017. Thesis includes theoretical part, which covers several typologies concerning factions and Euroscepticism. Based on the theoretical part were laid out three research criteria. The first criterion examines the external manifestations of Euroscepticism on party manifestos on which are compared statements concerning the European Union. The next chapter criterion examines the internal manifestations of party Euroscepticism and fragmentation. They are analysed based on the behaviour of factions and politicians between 2015 and 2017. The last criterion maps the manifestations of Euroscepticism and fragmentation on the intra party election of a new party leader. Before each analysis comes a description of examined subjects....

This bachelor thesis deals with the following issues: Which member states of the EU are the most connected to the UK economy, how leaving the EU will affect the UK economic situation, how actually strong the relations between the EU and the UK are and to what extent the UK departure from the EU will affect both sides. Since this is a very extensive topic and to date, there are hundreds of opinions, researches and prognoses on how Brexit will influence economy and political and social life at both supranational and national level, I have narrowed down my thesis to assessment of the following indicators: business, investments, budget, institutional representation and post-Brexit fate of EU and UK citizens. The thesis is divided in four chapters. The first chapter represents the historical development of the UK relationships with the EU and the second chapter explains the circumstances of a member state leaving the EU. Chapters three and four include the models of the UK economic relationships and economic development of the EU, EU member states and the UK until Brexit. Economic and political news articles, statistical data and analytical works of leading experts in this field were used in the thesis.

Ireland is generally seen as one of the biggest supporters of the European Union. Irish public opinion researches have been showing long-term and extremely positive attitudes to the European integration. The pro-European consensus is also known among the local political parties. Moreover, at the end of the 20th century, a strong economic growth had started and the Ireland quickly became a model example of how positive impact the European integration may have on its Member states. European issues therefore did not attract too much attention in the local political discourse. This changed in the early 21st century, when the increasing public euroscepticism began observable. The thesis examines whether selected Irish political parties adapted their rhetoric and actions to ever more critical mood of voters. These are Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. The thesis covers three critical moments of the Irish European integration, namely the Nice Treaty, the Lisbon Treaty and the Irish debt crisis. It searches for negative comments about the EU and European integration of examined political parties in the campaigns before the referendum on European issues, as well as in their election statements to the Irish parliamentary elections, also taking place in the selected period. The aim of the thesis is...

This master's thesis deals with a depiction of a European migrant crisis in an agenda of Eurosceptic parties. The main goal of this thesis is to analyse the content of press releases and political programmes of selected Eurosceptic parties and, based on this, to examine their attitudes to the migrant crisis and possible connections with a degree of their Euroscepticism. There are four parties in this research selected according to the degree of Euroscepticism and the net immigration rate of their countries resulting in a research sample of two soft and two hard Eurosceptic parties from four different countries - two with high and two with low net immigration rate. A time frame of research is set from January 2015 to September 2016, which covers a main period of immigration waves. The research proved that there are some common characteristics among Eurosceptic parties and their attitudes to the migration, but more important factor is a main ideology of given party beyond its Euroscepticism. We could observe a wide spectrum of opinions from manifestations of solidarity and efforts to constructively resolve the crisis, through simple criticism towards the European union up to anti-migration rhetoric with elements of a xenophobia. After an evaluation of all factors we could say that hard Eurosceptic...

The main subject of this thesis is the analysis of the electoral campaign of the Free Citizens Party for the elections to the European Parliament in 2014, taking into account all aspects of this specific type of election and also the electoral market on which the campaign was implemented. The thesis describes theory of electoral campaigns and defines the relevant socio-political context. In the practical part, it illustrates how the campaign adapted to the market and examines the campaign's use of "second-order election" parameters. Based on this investigation, it is then possible to evaluate party's electoral success. The secondary aim of the thesis is to implement the subject of Euroscepticism, as a political view, into the ideology and campaign of the Free Citizens' Party.

Master's thesis describes the development and operations of The Party of Free Citizens. The thesis includes a series of terms, without which party is impossible to categorize. These terms include: liberalism, classical liberalism, libertarianism, capitalism, right-wing, euroscepticism. Thesis also includes analysis of the organizational structure, constitutional documents and political program of The Party of Free Citizens. Last but not least thesis includes summary of election results of The Party of Free Citizens. The aim of master's thesis is to describe the meaning and background of The Party of Free Citizens. To process master's thesis were used internet sources, primarily website of The Party of Free Citizens. In thesis were also used dictionaries, professional political science publications and essayistic literature type.

The focus of the bachelor thesis is Euroscepticism and radical right parties. At first, the thesis describes the origins and roots of contemporary Euroscepticism, the next step is to present the main theoretical approaches. Based on that, the theoretical framework will be introduced. The aim is to define to which type of Euroscepticism belong United Kingdom Independence Party and Freedom Party of Austria and compare their manifestos during the period 2009-2014.

The aim of the bachelor thesis "Euroscepticism in the European Parliament: Has the Behaviour of the Eurosceptic MEPs Changed?" is to analyse political behaviour of eurosceptic MEPs in the European Parliament. The influence and a number of politicians who disagree with European integration and who strongly criticizes it has been getting higher in the last years. It also has an effect on the result of elections to the only directly-voted institution of the European Union. Twice as many of these politicians gained seats in the European Parliament in the elections in 2014 than in 2009. Two political factions that associate MEPs whose position is to be against European integration have also been formed. However, there was only one faction like this in the last legislative term. According to these recent circumstances this bachelor thesis analyses the definition of the term "euroscepticism" and also the behaviour of eurosceptic MEPs. Stronger political representation of this political stance means more possibilities and space for changing these stances to political actions in the European Union. The question remains whether they are going to use their stronger position for their political goals or they will more likely be passive and politically inactive. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The diploma thesis Czech media and public euroscepticism examines frames of public euroscepticism in Czech media agenda and public agenda. The thesis is framed in agenda- setting and framing theory which explains processes of shifting themes between public agenda, media agenda and political agenda. Plethora of studies set in agenda-setting and framing theory has proved correlations between media agenda and public agenda. The goal of this diploma thesis is to examine what is the correlation between Czech media agenda and public agenda in terms of public euroscepticism, which eurosceptic frames are brought in public agenda by media agenda and how pervasive those frames are. For the comparison of agendas is used the typology of public euroscepticism by Catharine Sørensen which consists of economic euroscepticism, euroscepticism based on sovereignty, democratic euroscepticism and social euroscepticism. Author postulates positive correlation between media agenda and public agenda and presence of pervasive frames in media agenda. The first part describes the theoretical frame of the thesis, the agenda-setting and framing theory. The second chapter presents existing research about euroscepticism on EU and Czech level. The third part describes the Czech public agenda based on the public opinion research,...

This thesis deals with the cooperation among the Czech Eurosceptic MEPs in the European Parliament. First, I try to define the concept of Euroscepticism and its development in the Czech environment. The next chapter is dedicated to the Czech Eurosceptic parties and to the development of their attitudes towards the European Union. For this purpose I analyzed thein election programmes. The empirical chapter is focused on the cooperation and working strategies of the Czech Eurosceptic MEPs. In the conclusion I made comments on the work of the selected Czech MEPs in the European Parliament. This enabled me to find out whether the Czech Eurosceptic MEPs act in accordance with the values professed by their respective political parties.

The Euroscepticism is a very popular issue now. Its popularity has risen because of inability of European states to solve the crisis since the start of the Eurozone crisis. This thesis is based on analysis of party program documents and other statements. It attempts to capture the increase in Euroscepticism among German political parties. The public opinion is taking into account as well. Germany has become one of the main actors in the search for ways out of the crisis. This role associated with some financial burden has led to series of discussion and to the growth of skepticism among the political parties. The European Stability Mechanism was the one of the most discussed topics. The crisis provoked uncertainty and skepticism among the German public as well. This scepticism was largely influenced by the actual situation in the Eurozone. In direct response to the crisis a new political movement was created. It was called the Alternative for Germany. The Alternative for Germany rejected remaining in the Eurozone. It reached some success in provincial elections in 2014. There were more reasons for its success which not just correspondent with its eurosceptic agenda. The thesis identifies these reasons as well. Despite this situation, Germany remains a pro-European state.

This thesis deals with the far-right parties in the European Parliament. Emphasis is placed on the situation after the elections to the European Parliament in 2014 and the post-election negotiations to create a single far-right political groups. The work introduces the theoretical concepts of the far-right, nationalism, anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, populism and euroscepticism. It also deals with the issue of the European Parliament, the formation of political groups and the character of the European elections. Far-right parties in the European Parliament are presented in a separate chapter, which deals with the history of their associating into political groups, the results of the 2014 European elections and negotiations about possible cooperation. Rhetoric and ideology of the far-right is presented on the example of three parties - the National Front, the UK Independence Party and the Golden Dawn.

The topic of the master thesis is putting together two subjects that always sharply polarize academic, but also political and public debate - euroscepticism and Nobel Peace Prize. Through an analysis of primarily negative debate that followed after awarding Nobel Peace Prize to European Union in 2012 the master thesis is aiming to answer the question to what extent it was the topics typical for euroscepticism that shaped this debate. The paper is operating with a hypothesis that it was this critical phenomenon, typical only for EU, being the main component of the negative debate overshadowing expected criticism with regard to the purpose of the award. For the second hypothesis which anticipates that the topics of euroscepticism make the EU specific laureate is necessary to compare this case with three other international organizations (and their criticism) that were recently awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. These organizations include Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (laureate in 2013), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) and United Nations (2001). The first chapter introduces the Nobel Peace Prize and its specifications. The topics typical for euroscepticism are generated in the second part through academic debate on both party politics euroscepticism and public...

The theme of this thesis is strongly connected to its aim which is to distinguish and describe the causes of the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party. The introduction provides us with the brief history of the party and its election results. The next step considers the classification of the UKIP which leads us to consideration that party does not match perfectly to any party group. Still the theoretical frame of populist radical right parties seems to be the most suitable for examining UKIP. According to assumptions of this theory it was plausible to determine potential causes of the rise of the UKIP: process of modernization, economic dimension, Euroscpeticism, crisis and populism, ethnic issue and immigration, authoritarian intentions, voting system, evolution of party competition and internal supply of UKIP. Final analytical part of this thesis is designated to evaluate each cause. The findings of this paper correspond to original hypotheses. Thesis comes to conclusion that the most important voters' motives to vote UKIP are their Eurosceptic, populist and anti-immigration attitudes. This clearly corresponds to party's own policies and presentation. While process of modernization and development in party competition created suitable environment for the rise of the party. The voting system has...

This thesis is about a comparative analysis of the Czech Civic Democratic Party and British Conservative party in terms of the euroscepticism. The student will be dealing with the time period from 2008 to the present. In the first part of the thesis the definition of euroscepticism and its classification will be presented with special focus on Taggart's theory. In the second part, the theory will be applied to the political parties. the aim of the work is to define the type of euroscepticism, compare its manifestation and determine whether in the selected time period the euroscepticism changed and if so, what caused this change (or the stability) of the advocated position.

This bachelor thesis aims to explain how euroscepticism in Italy affected the relation between the country and the European Union. It is focused on the development and analysis of euroscepticism in general. Later the findings are applied to the case of Italy, through which I analyse the factors that contributed to the rise of euroscepticism and the popularity of this stance. The focus is on the events from 2009 to 2014, namely the crucial events in Italy (Tangentopoli, introduction of Euro, political elections, and so forth). The situations in Greece, Germany and Spain are analysed and compared (with Italy and each other) next. The consequences of the debt crisis on the countries, such as the creation of the first Eurosceptic party in Germany or the deferring consequences of the crisis in Greece and Spain are also described. Thanks to the comparison, the situation in Italy and its consequences for the EU (and vice-versa) are put into a broader perspective and better understood. The last chapter describes the way the changes in attitude towards the EU influenced the relations between Italy and the Union (from an originally positive relation to a currently passive-negative one). The contemporary situation and its possible consequences (for example the changes in function and form of the EU and Eurozone, or the possible reforms in Italy) are accentuated throughout the thesis.

Euroscepticism is considered as a stream of thoughts whch is typical of the EU distrust or of the European integration and its goals as such. The most common objections to joining the integration proces are loss of national sovereignty, not paying enough attention to national interests or too strict policy unification that does not allow for national particularities. This master thesis will focus on euroscepticism as a concept, il will analyze its ideological roots and the most frequent arguments in favour of this concept. Furthermore, it will analyze various classifications of euroscepticism as well as its potential to be called a new cleavage or even ideology as I suggest that there is no widely-accepted definition. Great Britain - a representative of traditionally very sceptical approach towards European integration project has been chosen as a model case. In this case study firstly, the development of potential eurosceptical thinking within the Conservative Party and the Labour Party will be explored. More importantly, it will concentrate on the (in)consistency of their European policies in time, analysis of their attitudes in the 21st century and finally it will try to derive the future development of their possible eurosceptical opinions from their current manifestos and public speeches. The...

The aim of this paper is to analyze main approaches in the study of euroscepticism and to categorize them into the definition of Party-based euroscepticism which based on criteria defined to apply the theory to a particular political party. I will prove this in the example of the Civic democratic party. From these observations it will be obvious that euroscepticism in Central and East European countries is typical mainly for right-wing parties. ODS is a typical example of a right-wing euroscepticism political party which can be applied to the theory presented. I will empirically refer to the development of party's attitude in various time periods. As far a s the content itself is considered it is interesting to observe a difference between the party's preferences and the emphasis which supports the euroscepticism approach. Keywords Euroscepticism, European Integration, Party System, Party Politics, Civic Democratic Party

The thesis aims to analyze and explain nature of Euroscepticism of political parties. The objects of the research are two players of the Czech party system - the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). The thesis starts with a theoretical part, which summarizes the current debate in political science and Euroscepticism in the context of political parties. The aim of the empirical analysis is based on the verified KSČM and ODS in relation to the party Euroscepticism due to theory of Paul Taggart and Aleks Szczerbiak. The thesis tries to answer the research questions whether KSČM and ODS are truly Eurosceptic and which aspects of Euroscepticism are typical for that parties, as well as how Euroscepticism manifests. Key words: euroscepticism, european integration, ODS, KSČM, European Union

The thesis analyses and compares conception of Euroscepticism in the agendas of two Czech extra-parliamentary political parties: Free Citizens Party and Sovereignty - Bloc of Jana Bobošíková. The aim of this thesis is to characterize sources, roots and manifestations of Euroscepticism in political agendas of both political parties. At first, the thesis defines the origin and roots of contemporary Euroscepticism; afterwards it characterizes the term of the party-based Euroscepticism and presents its main contemporary theoretical approaches dealing with the party Euroscepticism research. For example: the typology by Aleks Szczerbiak and Paul Taggart (authors of the terms Soft and Hard Euroscepticism), enlargement of them by Petr Kopecký and Cas Mudde (enlargement by a positive approach of the parties to EU), standpoint of Italian Nicoló Conti and others. In quest of deepening the analytical part of this thesis discursive analysis methods are used as well. The thesis is also aimed at development and characterization of Euroscepticism in the Czech Republic, and subsequently at the conception of Euroscepticism of the Free Citizens Party and Sovereignty - Bloc of Jana Bobošíková.

The aim of this Bachelor Thesis is to describe and compare the current manifestations of Euroscepticism within the political elites and the citizens of the Czech and Slovak Republic, with specific regard to important milestones of European integration. The text is divided into three chapters. The first chapter focuses on conceptual approaches, which analyze the attitudes of political parties towards the EU and European integration. The second chapter discusses the classification of the various political parties, grouping them according to Petr Kanioks scale system of either euroscepticism, eurogovernmentalism or europeanists. The final chapter concentrates on the reasons which led political parties to uphold a negative stance towards integration, due to either ideological, or tactical-strategic grounds. The objective of the Thesis is to find out how similarly the Czech and Slovak Republics see European integration, and whether euroscepticism explains an ideological, or tactical-strategic stance.

Great Britain, one of the most eurosceptic countries, resisted for decades to entry into the European integration project, even though it was Winston Churchill, who called for the creation of a united Europe. This paper aims to describe the historical position of the United Kingdom in integration efforts, shows the approach of individual countries' governments and their contribution to the british integration into the European Communities. The analytical part is devoted to the impact of Great Britain's membership in the European Union and shows the advantages and disadvantages of approach to the unified european currency. Result of the analysis suggests that deeper integration into EU structures is not a favourable option for Great Britain, particularly disadvantageous would be adopting the euro. The debt crisis in the euro area and its development will have a major impact on the future direction of British integration policy.

This thesis deals with the changes of elite and public euroscepticism in Croatia with the beginning of the last wave of democratization, from the year 2000 until nowadays. Croatia is an example of a country with a declining number of public EU supporters, when the date of the EU accession approached. In contrast to the public opinion, the attitudes of dominant part of the political elite was typically a strong EU support. This bachelor thesis aims at proving the hypothesis that the source of the Croatian euroscepticism is europeanization. Therefore the integration process of Croatia is researched focusing on changes made by the EU as well as particular problematic cases that have decelerated the accession process and negatively affected the perception of the EU. Furthermore, the thesis contains a survey of attitudes to the EU presenting opinions of selected Croatian political parties and Croatian public. Special attention is devoted to capturing the overall picture of Croatian's society attitude towards the EU.

This work analyses development of economic and politic relationships of Great Britain with the European Communities (EC) and the European Union (EU) since the beginning of European integration till the contemporary debt crisis of the Eurozone. It deals with British European policies before and after Britain's accession to the EC and puts emphasis on British influence over negotiations about the main policies and institutional changes of the EC and EU, as well as on British internal views on European integration, first of all on often misunderstood British euroscepticism. From the analysis of historical and contemporary data author infers not only possible scenarios of the future relationship between the Great Britain and Europe, but also the influence of this member state on the development of the EU.