Taking cues beyond borders: how EU member state executives shape public opinion on European policy

A large literature examines how political parties and national elites shape citizens’ views of the EU, yet surprisingly little is known about how cues from politicians in other member states are received. This gap persists despite frequent and deliberate attempts by national executives to influence public opinion abroad. This paper advances the study of transnational cueing using two pre-registered survey experiments on representative samples in 16 EU countries (N = 30,600). Respondents read real newspaper editorials by Viktor Orbán and Emmanuel Macron advocating EU enlargement and reforms creating a common border force/asylum office. Experimental conditions varied the information provided about the op-ed’s author. Results show that cues from Orbán increase support for enlarging the EU to include Serbia, moderated by respondents’ own sovereignist or integrationist leanings. In contrast, cues from Macron decrease support for common border/asylum policies across voter groups. These findings highlight how transnational contestation replaces territorial divides in the EU.