In Italy’s structurally fragile rural peripheries, citizens do not simply reject the European Union (EU); in the most vulnerable of these territories, they exhibit what we term ‘last – resort support’. Drawing on post-2024 electoral survey data linked to municipal indicators of vulnerability and rurality, we show that the most fragile rural areas exhibit lower levels of institutional Euroscepticism and a greater willingness to delegate power to Brussels, particularly in sovereignty-related domains. This pattern emerges specifically where high vulnerability coincides with high rurality. We document this territorially specific configuration of conditional delegation as a descriptive form of last-resort support, contributing to debates on territorial politics, multilevel governance and the geography of EU discontent.
Last-resort Europe in rural Italy: territorial vulnerability and conditional delegation of EU competencies
Memoli,Vincenzo
2026-01-01
Abstract
In Italy’s structurally fragile rural peripheries, citizens do not simply reject the European Union (EU); in the most vulnerable of these territories, they exhibit what we term ‘last – resort support’. Drawing on post-2024 electoral survey data linked to municipal indicators of vulnerability and rurality, we show that the most fragile rural areas exhibit lower levels of institutional Euroscepticism and a greater willingness to delegate power to Brussels, particularly in sovereignty-related domains. This pattern emerges specifically where high vulnerability coincides with high rurality. We document this territorially specific configuration of conditional delegation as a descriptive form of last-resort support, contributing to debates on territorial politics, multilevel governance and the geography of EU discontent.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
