Elections

26 June 2018

Against Euroscepticism: practice, don’t preach the EU

By Alessandro Pellegata and Francesco Visconti

This article elaborates the multidimensional concept of “EU-politanism”, which refers to respondent’s connections with citizens of other countries and their familiarity with the EU context. In recent Italian elections, voters with EU-politan experiences expressed less extreme positions on the EU and immigration.

21 May 2018

Twitter and the politicisation of ‘Europe’ in the 2018 Italian election campaign

By Francesca Arcostanzo

To get an overview of the stance different political parties have on Europe and the extent to which European integration was politicised in the run-up to the 2018 elections, we followed Italy’s election campaign on Twitter from February 19th up to election day. The Democratic Party (PD) presented itself as the ‘only alternative’ to the anti-European populism and the sovereignist closure that characterizes its competitors.

18 May 2018

The winners and losers of globalisation in the Italian elections

By Alessandro Pellegata and Francesco Visconti

The recent Italian elections provide evidence of a political conflict between the winners and losers of globalisation. The latter tend to be more hostile to the EU and the Euro, more chauvinist and more likely to vote for Eurosceptic parties.

30 April 2018

How German political parties feel about the EU – A Twitter study

By Martina Zaghi

While Merkel is facing crucial political decisions on the EU, we analysed debates on Twitter during last year’s electoral campaign.

16 April 2018

Understanding the Italian vote: a matter of policy agendas

By Alessandro Pellegata and Francesco Visconti

Voter’s agendas suggest unemployment remains the most pressing problem, while immigration is becoming more important compared to previous elections. The polarisation of the issue of immigration played a central role in this year’s electoral campaign and is reflected in the public’s attitude towards the EU.

13 March 2018

How Italy’s Five-Star Movement and the League Won the Twitter Campaign

By Giovanni Pagano, Francesca Arcostanzo and Martina Zaghi

We have followed 1,579 candidates and tracked their Twitter conversations in the two weeks before the Italian parliamentary elections. Also, we collected 400,000 citizens’ retweets and replies to candidates’ tweets.

26 February 2018

No, Germany and Italy do not share the same EU vision

By Alexander Damiano Ricci

A couple of weeks ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, met on the occasion of a bilateral meeting, in Berlin. The two leaders said that they share the “same vision concerning the future of Europe”. Coupling the joint statement of Gentiloni and Merkel with the French-German entente sieged by the GroKo deal, one could argue that there exists an ideal match between the reformist visions of the centre-left and centre-right governing parties in France, Germany and Italy.

21 February 2018

Italian elections 2018: the Macerata attacks and the issue of immigration. A Twitter study

By Giovanni Pagano, Francesca Arcostanzo and Martina Zaghi

As the electoral campaign intensifies, political heat surrounding immigration remains high. Whatever the outcome of 4 March election will be, the issue of immigration is here to stay.

29 January 2018

Italian elections 2018: the online debate on “Euro-exit”

By Giovanni Pagano

The debate about Italy and the euro is a long-standing one on Twitter. However, the recent events seem to have spiced up the discussion, bringing the topic in the arena of the electoral campaign.

18 December 2017

Do German parties care about Europe? A Twitter study

By Giovanni Pagano, Francesca Arcostanzo and Martina Zaghi

Judging from the political debate on Twitter, the discussion about the European Union was not at the core of the German electoral campaign. However, surprisingly, mainstream parties demonstrated to be more capable than Eurosceptic ones to lead discussions on Europe.

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«Recent electoral successes of populists in Europe have created a nervous atmosphere in the political arena. Politicians (and their staff) must talk to voters and confront their position with opposing ones to make political competition visible. Debates need to represent pluralism – and politicians need to endorse it.»

Elections

Elections

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