France before 2019 European Elections Andrey Kudryavtsev
Naučno-analitičeskij vestnik Instituta Evropy RAN,
04/2019, Volume:
2, Issue:
8
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The paper discusses the causes of the deep social crisis erupted in the country on the eve of 2019 European Elеctions. The electoral campaign of main political parties is examined and the possible ...results of elections are indicated.
By placing candidates on electoral lists for European elections, national parties hold a very powerful position in the (re-)election of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). This article ...analyses the factors or individual characteristics of MEPs that affect list placement decisions. I identify three possible national party goals in European elections, legislative leverage, loyalty and attractiveness to voters, and examine evidence for each. Based on a unique data set of German MEPs from 1999–2009, the analysis shows that national parties, in particular small parties, value MEPs from more powerful committees. National parties furthermore reward MEPs with national party positions during the European Parliament term. Surprisingly, I find little evidence that German parties reward very loyal parliamentarians.
Candidate websites provide politicians with opportunities to present themselves in an individual way. To a greater or lesser extent politicians share personal information in their biographies and ...provide options to connect with citizens by putting links on their websites to their social networking sites (SNS). In this paper, although acting on different levels, both strategies are indicated as forms of personalization strategies used by politicians in their online communication. This cross-national study explores the use of these strategies on candidate websites in 17 countries during the elections for the European Parliament (EP) in June 2009. This is a comparative study of the personalized and individualized campaigning styles used during elections. Findings show that three general dimensions of personalization can be distinguished; ‘professional’, ‘home and family’ and ‘personal preferences’. While the first two dimensions show a higher level of use among candidates, the third dimension on private information is hardly used. Results show also that countries from Central Europe inform their citizens more about their professional and personal circumstances, and Mediterranean countries use personalization strategies the least. Furthermore, the overall findings show that SNS were not frequently used during the 2009 e-campaigning. West European countries use links to SNS more frequently than countries in other regions. In general these findings suggest cross-cultural differences regarding online personalized political campaigning.
By focusing on Cyprus’ constitutional and political system in light of the most recent European elections, this article explores and empirically analyses the second-order election theory and the ...European salience theory. The study applies these theories to identify key trends in Cypriot voters’ electoral behavior, including their attitudes toward European integration. The contribution starts with a brief preliminary section on the country’s historical background, geopolitical profile, and political landscape. It then provides insights on Cyprus’ electoral system, the political parties’ campaigns, and election results. The findings seek to unveil voter attitudes and political trends in Cyprus, feeding public discussion and academic dialogue on the issue in anticipation of the upcoming 2024 European election. The article aims to clarify the European South’s attitudes toward voting and what to expect in the upcoming 2024 elections, considering challenges, threats, and volatility.
In this paper I report the results from a door-to-door canvassing experiment conducted in Sweden during the 2014 European elections. The canvassing was performed by members of the Social Democratic ...Party and the experiment closely resembles the partisan nature of most mobilizing campaigns in Europe. The paper is one of the first to provide causal evidence for the mobilizing effectiveness of canvassing outside the United States. Living in a household that was visited by canvassers increases the probability of voting by 3.6 percentage points. This effect is entirely driven by estimates twice as large for occasional and first-time voters. Compared to previous research, the high compliance rate gives precisely estimated effects that are closer to average treatment effects.
EP elections are widely regarded as the archetypal second-order national election. Although parties' strategic moves are frequently mediated by traditional media, parties are increasingly using ...alternative communication strategies, as social media, to communicate directly to their electorate. Social media can be particularly relevant in 'bridging the gap' with voters in second-order elections. After 2014, EP elections took place in a context where policy had been, to a non-negligible extent, perceived to have been shaped at the European level. The extent to which Eurozone crisis 'disrupted' the second-order model requires further examination. Through the analysis of the activities of political parties in social media, this study seeks to assess the extent to which the Eurozone crisis triggered more intense campaigns while assessing the partisan variables that explain variation in parties' levels of activities. Overall, social media activity tends to suggest the resilience of the second-order model. This article highlights that the economic downturn has very much forced European issues into the political agendas, unveiling important signs of a disruption of the second-order model. Also, the politicisation of Europe in the first elections after the Eurozone crises (2019) was characterised by higher levels of activities of parties that openly contested the EU.
This article focuses on the 'Europe' of populist radical right parties in general, and the Lega of Matteo Salvini and its perception of Europe in particular. Especially after Brexit, Salvini has ...emphasized the goal of transforming Europe and taking back Italian sovereignty rather than leaving the EU. His discourse on 'Europe for Europeans' and 'Italy for Italians' represents an exclusive and nativist approach. Before the 2019 elections of the European Parliament, the contestation between many Europes came to the fore while the Lega has become a pioneer for populist radical right parties during the campaign period on behalf of a 'parochial Europe'. This article firstly explains the methodology, conceptual analysis, and analytical framework based on European multiplicity - as thin, thick, parochial, and global Europe. Secondly, it evaluates the 'Others' of parochial Europe, particularly for Lega. Thirdly, it analyses the case of the Lega as the pioneer of parochial Europe before the May 2019 EP elections based on semi-structured, face-to-face, in-depth expert interviews conducted by the author.
Governing parties generally win fewer votes at European Parliament elections than
at national electionsmost common explanation for this is that European elections
are ‘second order national ...elections’ acting as mid-term
referendums on government performance. This article proposes an alternative,
though complementary, explanation: voters defect because governing parties are
generally far more pro-European than the typical voter. Additionally, the more
the campaign context primes Eurosceptic sentiments, the more likely voters are
to turn against governing parties. A multi-level model is used to test these
propositions and analyse the effects of individual and contextual factors at the
1999 and 2004 European Parliament elections. Both European and domestic concerns
matter to voters; moreover, campaign context plays an important role in shaping
vote choices.
In May 2019, the EU countries will hold regular elections of deputies of the European Parliament - the main representative body of the Union. Taking into account a number of recent high-profile ...events that shook the EU, including Brexit, the coming to the leadership of eurosceptic and populist forces in a number of EU member States (Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland), the aggravation of relations with both the former main partner of the EU – the United States, and with a constant opponent in the face of Russia, the results of these elections are unpredictable. In this article, the author analyzes the possible impact of these events on the results of the upcoming elections and tries to give a preliminary forecast of their results
This article draws upon the literature on comparative political institutions in order to re-examine the logic of Twitter usage during campaign periods, now that social media has become a standard ...tool that is used across the political spectrum. We test how electoral institutions and individual characteristics shaped Twitter activity during the 2019 European elections cycle and compare the nature of this usage with the previous 2014 campaign. Our findings allow for an evaluation of social media campaigning against the backdrop of its dynamic evolution, while also confirming its normalisation in the European elections’ revival of the Spitzenkandidat process. Rather than seeking to differentiate themselves from party-internal and external competitors or highlighting their own qualities, our findings suggest that Members of the European Parliament used Twitter in 2019 to emphasise the lead candidate that they have in common.
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