‘More European but more negative’

Abstract

Political parties and election candidates use posters and TV spots to present themselves to the electorate in the hope of interesting them in their goals and promises and securing their support in the ballot box. This chapter draws on a study of poster and video spot advertisements in the 2014 elections. In section one relevant findings on the posters included in the study are discussed before the results for video spot advertising is examined in section two. The following section specifically explores how the EU and wider European issues were represented in these posters and videos.

The chapter findings show the continued absence of a transnational campaign in European Parliament elections in 2014 but there was some evidence of a transnational campaign theme in political advertising across member states. The chapter argues that the 2014 campaign was ‘more European’ than previous contests but that the ‘European debate’ was influenced by the post-2008 economic crisis. Reactions to the economic and financial crisis emerged as a dominant message of participating political parties - and these reactions were framed against the European response forging a common but not necessarily linked - debate in many member states.