The process of Europeanization has recently faced an increased salience resulting from a remarkable wave of dissatisfaction against it. But, what are the driving forces behind this dissatisfaction? In other terms, is discontent simply the result of the economic slump phase or rather symptomatic of in-depth processes occurring within the domestic political economies? Until the emergence of the Euro-crisis, indeed, very few attentions were devoted to the coexistence of different economic models onto a single currency area. Both the impact of the EMU on the national varieties and the effects of the constitutive features of any variety in the conceptualization of the EMU itself were overshadowed by convergence-rooted arguments. Relying on Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) and challenging the convergence arguments, this paper tries to connect political economy literature dealing with the crisis’ effects onto domestic institutional structures and the evidences of increasing discontent targeting the overall Europeanization process. It is therefore argued that a specific Europeanization phase – i.e. the EMU creation – introduced powerful elements of change. This is especially true for the Mixed Market Economies (MMEs), which largely correspond to the Southern-European countries. Those changes are particularly evident in the adjustment strategies supported within the Eurozone, a feature that became extremely evident and relevant once the crisis erupted. Hence, the discontent targeting Europeanization is not framed as simple reflex of the negative economic phase but rather as signal for an attempt to move those countries from their previous institutional equilibrium.
