Both political parties and differentiated integration (DI) play an ambivalent role in regard to democratic backsliding. Parties’ positioning towards democratic backsliding has not always been straightforward, and DI has been seen as facilitating it. We analyse whether party actors view democratic backsliding as a problematic issue for the EU, if they think DI facilitates it, and how they consider the EU should respond to it. Drawing on thirty-five interviews and a survey of forty-two party actors in seven member states, we show that many do view backsliding as problematic. Moreover, around half worried that DI could facilitate backsliding, though others did not link the two. Finally, almost all considered it legitimate for the EU to address democratic backsliding. Although centre-of-left actors are most likely to worry about democratic backsliding and favour EU intervention, actors across the political spectrum are sceptical about accepting DI in matters pertaining to Article 2.

中文翻译：

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党对民主倒退和差异化融合的看法

在民主倒退方面，政党和差异化一体化（DI）都扮演着矛盾的角色。政党对民主倒退的定位并不总是直截了当的，而直接投资被视为助长了它。我们分析政党参与者是否认为民主倒退是欧盟的一个问题，他们是否认为 DI 促进了它，以及他们认为欧盟应该如何应对它。通过对 7 个成员国的 35 次采访和对 42 名政党参与者的调查，我们表明许多人确实认为倒退是有问题的。此外，大约一半的人担心 DI 会导致倒退，尽管其他人并未将两者联系起来。最后，几乎所有人都认为欧盟解决民主倒退问题是合法的。