Large‐Scale Crises and Variation in Social Democratic Europeanism: The Italian Democratic Party

Since the late-2000s Great Recession and the beginning of the “polycrisis” era, scholars have reignited their interest in the (problematic) relationship between social democracy and European integration. What was the impact of the latest large-scale crises—the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine—on this relationship? In this article, we empirically assess the reaction of social democracy to these events in terms of party positions on the European Union (EU). Specifically, we look at one of Europe’s largest social democratic formations, the Italian Democratic Party (PD). This case is especially relevant as Italy is a founding EU member and historically a driving force for EU integration, and was significantly exposed to the social, economic, and international consequences of the “polycrisis” at a time when the PD was often in government. We employ a mixed-methods design, combining quantitative and qualitative evidence to show both, respectively, what directional effects these large-scale crises exerted on the PD’s EU positions and exactly how such impacts translated into party rhetoric on the EU. By doing so, we find that the PD reacted differently to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war. On the one hand, the pandemic bolstered the PD’s support for further European integration; on the other, the war has not significantly altered the party’s approach to the EU. We attribute this to the crises’ different policy implications. The pandemic foregrounded issues central to the centre-left, such as welfare and socioeconomic redistribution, including in the policy responses at the EU level; while the war shifted focus to more ideologically distant policy areas, such as common security and defence.