CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND PARTY STRATEGY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION.

Has European integration affected national electoral politics beyond the margins? Experts describe its main impact as empowerment of radical voices. Mainstream parties avoid EU issues that divide their left/right-based organizations; extreme parties attack the EU and the center's silence. But EU issues also generate important dynamics inside mainstream parties. We theorize cross-cutting EU issues as an example of a general model of cross-issue interference. Two mechanisms of interference alter party strategizing. When electoral victories have strengthened leaders, cross-cutting issues produce muffling of more recently-emerged issues. Divided parties cling to left/right issues and suppress fights over integration. But interference also runs the other way. When leadership is weak, muffling fails, and challengers aggravate dissent. Internal fights on newer (EU) issues affect the selection of leadership on older (left/right) issues, generating displacement from electorally-competitive positions. We document these mechanisms and their generality with mixed methods: pan-European panel analysis and interview-based accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]