Europe Constructed, Europe Contested: Italian Media Responses to the Treaties of Rome

Abstract

This article analyses Italian responses to the Treaties of Rome in 1957 by looking at media's role as a tool to both amplify voices and construct ideas on European integration. It attempts to expand upon and also challenges existing narratives on integration in Italy – which have tended to assume that ‘Euroscepticism’ largely emerged in a post-Maastricht context – by showing that the matter was already the source of significant politicisation and contestation, and that political actors used the outlets at their disposal to influence public opinion. Indeed, the Italian media conversations enveloping the Treaties of Rome – at a time when the introduction of RAI television was revolutionising the media landscape, and the Treaties were broadcast and politicised as a landmark event – highlight the variety of visions of European integration that had emerged. On the one hand, the ruling Christian Democratic government had radio and television under its harness, and used these channels to push a pro-integrationist orthodoxy on the Italian public. Nevertheless, we also see dissenting visions expressed in much of the printed press, not only from the anti-Western Communists and Socialists, but also from a broad church including neo-fascists, monarchists and even federalists. The article crucially finds that there was a deliberate effort by government-aligned journalists to marginalise – rather than engage with – any dissenting views on European integration.