What Do National Parties Campaign on during European Elections? Trends from Romania
What Do National Parties Campaign on during European Elections? Trends from Romania

Summary/Abstract: European elections generally arouse less interest from voters compared to national elections, often because during the electoral campaigns the topics of debate of national interest end up receiving more attention than those focusing on the European Union. The discourse on Europe thus becomes marginal and the essence of the European elections is diluted by local debates or driven by inter-party ideological disputes. In Romania, 2019 marked a peak moment in the turnout during the country’s fourth European election which saw more than 50% of the voters participate in the polls. However, this should not be confused with a sudden increase in Romanians’ interest in European politics. Using discourse analysis, this paper analyzes the political platforms that the main political parties in Romania campaigned on during the 2019 European elections as we attempt to answer the following question: How much did the Romanian parties focus on messages emphasizing the idea of Europe and how much did they cling to the usual national arguments?

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