THE EUROPEAN UNION - THE DANES SAID NO IN 1992 BUT YES IN 1993 - HOW AND WHY

The Danes said 'no' to the Maastricht Treaty in June 1992 because they were afraid of losing sovereignty and because they did not want any c loser political integration in Europe, but they said 'yes' in reply to a new referendum in May 1993. What had happened? A number of explanat ions come to mind, but which comes closest to explaining what happened to the Danes between 1992 and 1993? The conclusion in this article is that very little happened to change attitudes to European integration , but that very little was enough to result in a 'yes', since only som e 47,000 votes made the difference between 'no' and 'yes' in 1992. Wha t actually happened had less to do with changes in attitudes and more to do with changes in perceptions of the European Union, and especiall y changes in the perception of the risk of losing national sovereignty . Mass media played a role in this perceptual change and played it ver y early in the process-not during the so-called campaign period runnin g up to the referendum on 18 May 1993. A response to critical comments raised by Mark Franklin et al. to our analysis of the 1992 referendum is included.