Brexit: Chance or Challenge for the Central European Euroscepticism?

The paper analyses salience of Brexit as seen by the soft and hard Eurosceptic parties in Central-eastern European countries. First aim of the paper is therefore to summarize and analyse different reactions of these parties which can adopt different forms starting with conceptualisation of Brexit as a chance to radicalize its own position on the leave of the EU and going to taking Brexit as a challenge because of loosening very important British Eurosceptic allies within the EU and thus facing decreasing pressure towards the substantial reform of the EU. Second part of the analysis will connect empirical findings with interpretation based on two categories of Euroscepticism, a soft and a hard one. We argue that as there is fundamental difference between the former and the later, reactions of both camps will vary substantially. While soft Eurosceptics consider Brexit as possibility to reform the EU, hard Eurosceptics translate it as a call to destroy the EU. Our research thus contributes to the understanding of party based Euroscepticism, its empirical analysis and its clearer fundamental conceptualization.