Mediterranean Farmers and Alternative Europes: Resistance, Europeanisation and CAP Reforms in Italy and France (mid-1970s to mid-1980s)

Abstract

This article explores the active participation and, in some cases, resistance of farmers’ associations in Italy and France to European integration from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The article examines, firstly, how Italian associations became active, due to their faltering relationship with the Christian Democrats, in searching new forms of political influence through more radical methods of mobilisation. Secondly, through the case of the so-called wine war between France and Italy, the article reveals how resistance to European Economic Community (EEC) reform and even other EEC member states could lead to forms of Europeanisation: exchanges between European organisations reflected shared resistance to specific policies, creating new arenas for collaboration. The analysis of the French–Italian case also offers an opportunity to explore the contrast between agriculture in the Mediterranean and northern countries in the EEC, showing complex Europeanisation dynamics in which both solidarity and competition become evident. Challenging the notion of a ‘permissive consensus’, this article aims to dismantle the notion of a conflict-free past in the history of European integration. In this regard, it underscores the multifaceted nature of European integration, marked by continual clashes and compromises, and provides a critical lens for interpreting the present state of the Brussels institutions.