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The Centre for European Studies, jointly with the Department of Politics and Public Administration, hosted a well‑attended public lecture today titled “Coping with Europe: EU Membership and Party System Change.” Following the talk, an active and engaging Q&A session took place, reflecting strong interest in the themes discussed.

The lecture was delivered by Professor Nils Ringe, Professor and Robert F. and Sylvia T. Wagner Chair in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A leading scholar in European Union politics, party systems, and legislative studies, Professor Ringe presented findings from a major comparative project investigating how political parties and party systems adapt—or fail to adapt—to the pressures of European integration.

His research pairs broad cross‑national quantitative analyses with detailed case studies of Italy, the UK, Slovenia, and Portugal. In this talk, Professor Ringe focused particularly on the Portuguese case, where the Europeanization of the party system has been more subtle than in many other EU member states.

He explained that while European integration often creates tension between mainstream parties and their traditional voter bases, Portugal stands out as an exception. Because the country’s democratization and EU accession were closely intertwined, both Portuguese voters and political parties tend to view the EU as an inherent component of democratic life. As a result, parties across the political spectrum generally avoid open Euroscepticism. Instead, they offer targeted critiques of specific EU policies while maintaining more nuanced, pragmatic positions toward the EU as a political project.

Professor Ringe highlighted that the Portuguese example illustrates how national institutional contexts fundamentally shape the impact of EU membership, influencing both voter engagement with European issues and the strategies parties employ in response.

About the Speaker

Nils Ringe is Professor and Robert F. and Sylvia T. Wagner Chair in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also served as Director of the Center for European Studies (2014-21), the Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence (2015-18), the Jean Monnet EU Center of Excellence for Comparative Populism (2019-22), and held a Jean Monnet Chair (2015-21). His research focuses on European Union politics, populism, legislative politics, language and politics, elections, political parties, and political networks. Ringe’s most recent books are “The Language(s) of Politics: Multilingual Policy-Making in the European Union” (Michigan University Press 2022) and “Populists and the Pandemic: How Populists Around the World Responded to COVID-19” (Routledge 2023, edited with Lucio Renno).