Towards an ever stronger politicization? How members of the European Parliament deal with values in social networks

ABSTRACT

Since the 2000s, the reference to ‘values’ has become a key topic in the legitimation and politicization of the European Union (EU). This article studies to which extent and how members of the European Parliament (MEPs) mobilize values in their Facebook communication and whether it contributes to the politicization – understood as polarization – of their discourse.

Our findings show that references to values are minor in MEPs’ Facebook discourse. Differences are visible along national and party lines and according to issues at stake. However, no clear patterns emerge to relate specific value narratives to stable coalition- or conflict-lines. Empirically, the article analyses Facebook posts by MEPs of four nationalities (France, Italy, Poland and Hungary) in pre- and post-electoral times (March 2019 – March 2020). Theoretically, it contributes to the literature on the politicization and legitimation of the EU ; and on MEPs’ communication and use of social networks.

KEYWORDS:

• Values
• European Parliament
• religion
• politicization
• social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/144/la-politique-de-communication

2. Volume peak indicates an increase in posts’ production. Interaction peaks calculate each post’s audience reaction in terms of reactions, comments and shares. For further details see Appendix.

3. At the time of the fieldwork, the Hungarian party Civic Alliance Fidesz was still formally a member of the EPP Group, yet suspended in 2019. It finally withdrew from the political group and the party in March 2021. Retrospectively, it confirms the ownership of values and religious values by extreme right and non-attached MEPs.

4. Ujhelyi István, 19 October 2019, Facebook post, our translation.

5. For details on Crowdtangle coverage for pages, we refer the reader to https://help.crowdtangle.com/en/articles/1140930-what-is-crowdtangle-tracking.

6. Facebook accounts include private pages whose data are not tracked by Crowdtangle. Facebook Public Pages, tracked by Crowdtangle, indicate places for businesses, brands, organizations and public figures to share their stories and connect with people.