Party position, electoral incentives, and attention to European Union issues in the 2019 European Parliament election

Under what conditions do Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) give attention to EU issues in European Parliament (EP) election campaigns? This study examines how party positioning on European integration and individual electoral incentives affected MEPs' attention to EU issues in the 2019...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Font, Nuria|||0000-0002-2629-6829
Format: article
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:286674
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/286674
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1177/13540688231224059
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:European parliament
Elections
Salience
Members of the European parliament
Political parties
Description
Summary:Under what conditions do Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) give attention to EU issues in European Parliament (EP) election campaigns? This study examines how party positioning on European integration and individual electoral incentives affected MEPs' attention to EU issues in the 2019 EP election campaign. Based on data collected from Twitter, the findings show that pro-EU parties and individual vote-seeking incentives increased attention to EU issues. More specifically, they show that MEPs from pro-EU mainstream parties had incentives to debate about EU issues, especially when they competed for votes. The findings help to unfold the interplay between party-level and legislator-level factors and its effects on attention to EU issues and aim to contribute to research on EU issue salience and EP election campaigns.