Europe belongs to the young? Generational differences in public opinion towards the European Union during the Eurozone crisis

Abstract

The notion that younger people hold more favourable attitudes towards the European Union (EU) is prevalent in both academic and popular discourse. While certain events like the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom fit this intuition, other developments such as Eurosceptic parties garnering considerable support among millennial voters in some member states do not. To understand these diverging trends, this study draws our attention to how specific events shape EU support. It empirically demonstrates how the Eurozone crisis shapes generational divides. Younger cohorts in debtor countries have become significantly more sceptical of the EU than their peers in creditor states. The opposite pattern emerges for older cohorts. Older generations are more supportive of the EU in debtor countries compared to creditor states. These findings have important implications for our understanding of how public support for the EU will develop in the future by suggesting that generational divides are highly context-dependent.