Habituating to the New Normal in a Post-earthquake Party System: The 2014 European Election in Greece

Abstract:

The article examines the 2014 European election in Greece. Held two years after the double-earthquake elections of 2012 and with the country still mired in a protracted economic crisis, our findings largely support the conclusion that the post-‘earthquake’ European election of 2014 can be classified as one of the most classic second-order elections in the history of Greek elections.

Both ideology and attribution of blame for the ongoing economic crisis to the PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) and ND (New Democracy) governments to a large extent explain the victory of SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left). At the same time, however, more fundamental positions towards European unification appear to have become more relevant to party choice for the first time since the early 1980s.