Europeanising the political agenda? Discursive issue-linkages in EP elections

For elections to fill their function, it is essential that voters are provided with sufficient information and that parties offer political alternatives. An important aspect of the claim that European Parliament elections are second-order to national elections, is that the campaigns in the EU countries often focus on national issues rather than offering such information and choices relevant to the European level (Haßler et al., 2021). However, scholars have argued that EP election campaigns have become increasingly Europeanised, mostly either very broadly conceived (e.g., Eugster et al., 2021) or focusing on the politicisation of either EU policy or polity issues in the campaigns (e.g., Braun et al., 2016). At the same time, mobilisation of policy issues is a central part of election campaigns (Bene, Magin & Haßler, 2024). Which issues make it onto the public agenda is very likely to impact the outcome of elections, also in EP elections. An additional factor impacting the mobilisation of voters seems to be whether such issues are seen as relevant for the elections (Braun & Schäfer, 2022). Because of this, politicians have considerable interests in attempting to place policy issues on the political agenda that they are likely to benefit from. Furthermore, they might also have an interest in making linkages between policy issues that are already highly salient among voters and the European level. How might such efforts impact the Europeanisation of EP election campaigns and its democratic credentials? This paper combines these two perspectives, Europeanisation and issue-mobilisation, and presents a conceptual framework for how politicians might contribute to the Europeanization of EP elections by linking policy issues to European integration. It broadens the existing approach to the ‘Europeanness’ of EP election campaigns and engages in a normative discussion of different forms of issue-mobilisation. Using examples from German top candidates’ social media campaigns in the 2024 EP elections, the paper illustrates and discusses the implications of different types of linkages, including both direct linkages, such as politicisation of EU polity or policy, but also contextual linkages, as based on the actor itself or other cues linking the policy issue to the European level.