IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v63y2025i6p1931-1948.html

Issue Salience in the European Parliament Election: An Analysis of Economic, Environmental and Immigration Issues on Social Media

Author

Listed:
  • Nuria Font

Abstract

This study investigates under what conditions Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) emphasised relevant policy issues—economy, climate/environment and immigration—during the 2019 European Parliament election campaign. Building on research on issue salience in EP elections and based on the content published on X/Twitter by MEPs in the weeks preceding the election, the study identifies key drivers of issue attention. It shows that issue relevance in the domestic public agenda and individual issue expertise increase MEPs' attention to the three policy issues, whereas parties' stance on the sociocultural dimension only affects attention to climate/environment. The study contributes to research on issue salience in EP election campaigns and MEPs' communication on social media, highlighting the importance of adopting a cross‐issue approach when studying European elections.

Suggested Citation

  • Nuria Font, 2025. "Issue Salience in the European Parliament Election: An Analysis of Economic, Environmental and Immigration Issues on Social Media," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(6), pages 1931-1948, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:6:p:1931-1948
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13722
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13722
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13722?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beach, Derek & Hansen, Kasper M. & Larsen, Martin V., 2018. "How Campaigns Enhance European Issues Voting During European Parliament Elections," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 791-808, October.
    2. Jelle Koedam, 2021. "Avoidance, ambiguity, alternation: Position blurring strategies in multidimensional party competition," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 655-675, December.
    3. Barberá, Pablo & Casas, Andreu & Nagler, Jonathan & Egan, Patrick J. & Bonneau, Richard & Jost, John T. & Tucker, Joshua A., 2019. "Who Leads? Who Follows? Measuring Issue Attention and Agenda Setting by Legislators and the Mass Public Using Social Media Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 113(4), pages 883-901, November.
    4. Grande, Edgar & Schwarzbözl, Tobias & Fatke, Matthias, 2019. "Politicizing immigration in Western Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(10), pages 1444-1463.
    5. Sofia Vasilopoulou & Katjana Gattermann, 2021. "Does Politicization Matter for EU Representation? A Comparison of Four European Parliament Elections," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 661-678, May.
    6. repec:cup:apsrev:v:113:y:2019:i:04:p:883-901_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. De Sio, Lorenzo & Weber, Till, 2014. "Issue Yield: A Model of Party Strategy in Multidimensional Space," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(4), pages 870-885, November.
    8. Hobolt, Sara B. & de Vries, Catherine E., 2016. "Turning against the union? The impact of the crisis on the Eurosceptic vote in the 2014 European Parliament elections," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66831, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Hutter, Swen & Kriesi, Hanspeter, 2019. "Politicizing Europe in times of crisis," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(7), pages 996-1017.
    10. Wouter van der Brug & Katjana Gattermann & Claes H. de Vreese, 2022. "Electoral responses to the increased contestation over European integration. The European Elections of 2019 and beyond," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(1), pages 3-20, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Whitaker & Sofia Vasilopoulou & Katjana Gattermann, 2026. "A Representative European Parliament? Members of European Parliamentary Party Groups and the Representation of Citizens' Preferences," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(1), pages 3-23, January.
    2. Thomas M. Meyer & Katjana Gattermann, 2022. "Party contestation and news visibility abroad: The 2019 European Parliament election from a pan-European perspective," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(3), pages 398-416, September.
    3. Wouter van der Brug & Katjana Gattermann & Claes H. de Vreese, 2022. "Electoral responses to the increased contestation over European integration. The European Elections of 2019 and beyond," European Union Politics, , vol. 23(1), pages 3-20, March.
    4. Anna Kyriazi & Mariana S. Mendes & Julia Rone & Manès Weisskircher, 2023. "The Politics of Emigration in Europe: A Research Agenda," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 563-575, March.
    5. Ryan Bakker & Seth Jolly & Jonathan Polk, 2018. "Multidimensional incongruence and vote switching in Europe," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 267-296, July.
    6. Laurie Beaudonnet & Raul Gomez, 2024. "The imbalanced effect of politicization: How EU politicization favours Eurosceptic parties," European Union Politics, , vol. 25(2), pages 354-375, June.
    7. Hector Galindo-Silva, 2024. "Ideological ambiguity and political spectrum," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 139-180, June.
    8. Benoit Aubert & Jane Li & Markus Luczak-Roesch & Thierry Warin, 2021. "La détermination des agendas de discussion par les médias sociaux," CIRANO Project Reports 2021rp-12, CIRANO.
    9. Mikko Mattila & Tapio Raunio, 2026. "Still Out of Touch? Parties and Their Voters on the EU Dimension," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 14.
    10. Rauh, Christian & Parizek, Michal, 2024. "Converging on Europe? The European Union in mediatised debates during the COVID-19 and Ukraine shocks," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 31(10), pages 3036-3065.
    11. Daniela Braun & Markus Tausendpfund, 2020. "Electoral Behaviour in a European Union under Stress," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 28-40.
    12. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1divsbu8t888r9vqektjbmlqoa is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Maria Wincławska & Anna Pacześniak, 2026. "Deconstructing Polish Euro‐Enthusiasm: The Illusory Incongruence of Party Narratives With Public Opinion," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 14.
    14. Zhang, Han, 2021. "How Using Machine Learning Classification as a Variable in Regression Leads to Attenuation Bias and What to Do About It," SocArXiv 453jk, Center for Open Science.
    15. Jetter, Michael & Molina, Teresa, 2022. "Persuasive agenda-setting: Rodrigo Duterte’s inauguration speech and drugs in the Philippines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    16. Petrova, Bilyana & Ranaldi, Marco, 2021. "Determinants of Income Composition Inequality," SocArXiv vyrz7, Center for Open Science.
    17. Fanghella, Valeria & Schleich, Joachim & Sebi, Carine, 2026. "Populism and support of onshore wind energy: Explaining different perspectives from the left and right," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    18. Lukas Breide & Oliver Budzinski & Thomas Grebel & Juliane Mendelsohn, 2025. "Forerunners vs. latecomers—institutional competition in the German federalism during the COVID crisis," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 101-132, February.
    19. Andres Reiljan & Lorenzo Cicchi & Diego Garzia, 2023. "Party placement in the void: the European political space in 10 years of cross-national Voting Advice Applications," RSCAS Working Papers 2023/20, European University Institute.
    20. Jacopo Mazza & Mariapia Mendola & Marco Scipioni, 2026. "Impressions for a Lifetime: Youth Exposure to Immigration and Anti-immigrant Sentiment in Germany," Working Papers 571, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics.
    21. Joshua Alley, 2023. "Elite Cues and Public Attitudes Towards Military Alliances," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 67(7-8), pages 1537-1563, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:6:p:1931-1948. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.