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Il capitolo analizza le origini e l'evoluzione della profonda spaccatura del partito conservatore sui temi europei, che è culminata con la vittoria del 'Leave' nel referendum del giugno 2016. Ci si interroga sulla combinazione di fattori di lungo e breve periodo nella gestione delle questioni europee, per capire come si sia arrivati al referendum e quali sono i fattori strutturali che spiegano la natura euroscettica del paese e l'evoluzione degli atteggiamenti ostili all'Europa negli ultimi anni.

Although the post-crisis politicisation of the ECB is widely acknowledged, little empirical evidence exists about how this important non-majoritarian institution has responded to public contestation. This article starts filling this gap by investigating whether and how public opinion affects ECB communication. Based on automated text analysis of the speeches delivered by Executive Board members (2001–2017), the article shows that negative public opinion is associated with an expansion of the scope of ECB communication and a reduction in the salience attributed to monetary policy issues. These results challenge the view according to which the ECB conceives of its sources of legitimation based almost exclusive on the achievement of its mandate. In particular, our findings suggest that increased politicisation leads the ECB to reassess the sources of its legitimation strategy from a strategy based on output achievement towards one based on participation to broader policy debates.