Dancing along with the party? party-cues and attitudes towards the EU unification in Montenegro

Current literature offers various theoretical explanations of what can affect citizens’ opinions on the issue of further EU unification, yet these remain untested in candidate states. This paper contributes by presenting novel insights into the puzzle of sudden shifts in attitudes towards the EU unification in a state closest to achieving the EU membership: Montenegro. Using OLS regression with survey design weights on European Social Survey Waves 9 and 10 data (N = 2478) I show that: 1) voters of the dominant party and its junior partners in ‘European Montenegro’ coalitions became significantly more Eurosceptic over time picking up the ‘blame the EU’ narrative; 2) voters of interest-driven Europhiles (Pro-Serb parties) remained Eurosceptic; while 3) voters of traditionally pro-EU ‘Civic’ parties became suddenly Eurosceptic due to coalitional heuristics. The findings have implications for understanding the effect of party signalling in candidate states and offer new evidence for EU integration debates.