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Europe in the Headlines: What Two Decades of French News Reveal about EU Sentiment

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  • Camille Jehle
  • Florian Le Gallo

Abstract

Using a large language model, we build a unique 400,000 corpus of articles related to the European Union (EU) published between 2005 and 2023 in more than 100 French local and national newspapers. Drawing on this dataset, we show that the interest of French newspapers in European issues has remained stable since 2005 and is primarily driven by the European elections every 5 years. An analysis of polarity and topics covered reveals that the local press pays greater attention to tangible EU initiatives—such as cultural exchange programs—which are generally portrayed in a positive light. Finally, we show that French media sentiment towards the European Union deteriorated significantly following the financial and sovereign debt crises, mirroring the trend observed in Eurobarometer opinion surveys on EU sentiment. However, from 2013 onward, a divergence emerged since sentiment in the press gradually returns to pre-crisis levels while public image of the European Union in the opinion remains below these levels. Focusing on the Euro area, we do not observe such a divergence.

Suggested Citation

  • Camille Jehle & Florian Le Gallo, 2025. "Europe in the Headlines: What Two Decades of French News Reveal about EU Sentiment," Working papers 1008, Banque de France.
    • Handle: RePEc:bfr:banfra:1008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    JEL classification:

    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis
    • F59 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Other

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