Ideologiska skillnader mellan nationella och transnationella partier: En kvalitativ studie över hur Moderaterna och Kristdemokraterna skiljer sig från Europeiska folkpartiet

Sammanfattning: This study concerns the ways the two Swedish national parties the Moderates and the Christian Democrats differ from the European People’s Party, which is the transnational party they belong to in the European Union. The parties’ election manifestos from the European Parliament election of 2014 are compared using a qualitative text analysis and related to earlier research and theories within the field. The results show that the national parties overall conform to the European party, and the only question where they explicitly disagree is concerning the euro. However, the national parties also seem to want to go further than the European party regarding, for example, combating climate change and accepting refugees, but it’s difficult to say for certain because of the short length and lack of details in the manifesto of the European party. This means it’s difficult for the voters to know how much influence the national parties will be able to have in the European Parliament, since it’s unclear to what extent they will be supported by their European party.