Do politicians connect with young people? Analysis of Twitter use by candidates in the 2019 European Parliament election campaign

Abstract

The use of social media, especially Twitter, has become part of the political communication strategies of parties and candidates. Reaching young voters and reducing their historical abstention has become a challenge, even more for candidates standing for the European Parliament, elections that have traditionally witnessed a much smaller turnout. To find out if the main six candidates in the 2019 European Parliament election campaign (10–26 May), called to occupy the presidency of the European Commission, connected with younger voters, this research applies the multiple-case study based on the analysis of their Twitter posts. The results show that candidates (Spitzenkandidaten) preferred to talk about tops such as territory, vote appeal, and their parties’ alliances above the topics that most interest young people: climate change and environment, education, poverty and inequalities, unemployment, human rights and democracy and health. Better political social media communication is needed to make candidates’ communication strategies more consistent and to promote voters’ participation, especially among youth.