The representativeness of the European Parliament has usually been a subject of controversy, which is currently increased by Brexit and the development of several populist movements within the EU. In this context, the elections to the European Parliament in 2019 were the second occasion on which the "Spitzenkandidaten" system was applied. By this system the parties present potential candidates to preside the European Commission, with the aim of improving the citizen's legitimacy of the European project. Bearing this in mind, the objective of this research is to know the thematic agenda set by the “Spitzenkandidaten” on Twitter, trying to find differences with the issues raised by the traditional national leaders. To this end, the technique of quantitative content analysis is used, referring the issues addressed on Twitter by the six candidates to chair the Commission, as well as the thematic agenda exposed by a selection of the national candidates. The sample includes politicians from the four most populated countries of the Union excluding the United Kingdom - Germany, France, Italy and Spain - and it also seeks maximum ideological plurality. The research does not focus exclusively on the electoral contest phase, but observes the communicative action of these leaders over three months. The results show a more thematic concentration agenda in the "Spitzenkandidaten" than in national candidates. In addition, Eurosceptic politicians carry out a differential communicative behavior in comparison with Europeanist leaders. Therefore, the European elections seem to move on two levels: the national, in which the candidates by countries face national issues, and the transnational, in which the "Spitzenkandidaten" address topics from a European approach, accompanied also by references to domestic policy.

Abstract

The representativeness of the European Parliament has usually been a subject of controversy, which is currently increased by Brexit and the development of several populist movements within the EU. In this context, the elections to the European Parliament in 2019 were the second occasion on which the "Spitzenkandidaten" system was applied. By this system the parties present potential candidates to preside the European Commission, with the aim of improving the citizen's legitimacy of the European project. Bearing this in mind, the objective of this research is to know the thematic agenda set by the “Spitzenkandidaten” on Twitter, trying to find differences with the issues raised by the traditional national leaders. To this end, the technique of quantitative content analysis is used, referring the issues addressed on Twitter by the six candidates to chair the Commission, as well as the thematic agenda exposed by a selection of the national candidates. The sample includes politicians from the four most populated countries of the Union excluding the United Kingdom - Germany, France, Italy and Spain - and it also seeks maximum ideological plurality. The research does not focus exclusively on the electoral contest phase, but observes the communicative action of these leaders over three months. The results show a more thematic concentration agenda in the "Spitzenkandidaten" than in national candidates. In addition, Eurosceptic politicians carry out a differential communicative behavior in comparison with Europeanist leaders. Therefore, the European elections seem to move on two levels: the national, in which the candidates by countries face national issues, and the transnational, in which the "Spitzenkandidaten" address topics from a European approach, accompanied also by references to domestic policy.