Contest Over Europe? Party Competition Strategies towards the Populist Radical Right during European Parliament Election Campaigns in Germany

Populist radical right (PRR) politics has been shown to crucially impact the politicization of EU-related issues. European Parliament (EP) elections are concurrently seen as a particularly favourable context for PRR issue entrepreneurship. Yet, we still need deeper insights on how other parties actually react to Eurosceptic politics from PRR challengers in this electoral context. How do parties from the left and centre-right respond to contestation of EUrope by PRR actors during EP elections? (How) were these strategies adjusted in the wake of multiple EU-related PRR crisis constructions? In order to measure and explore the dynamic patterns of these spatial and narrative “contests over Europe”, this paper deploys a qualitative content analysis of social media campaigns during German EP elections 2014 and 2019. The analysis of these crucial cases contributes to a better understanding of mechanisms behind the discursive impact of PRR agency on established politics and EU-related party system supply.