Candidate-Oriented but No European Spitzenkandidaten: The Role of Candidates in Political Advertising

Abstract

In contests for the European Parliament, personalization does not lend itself as a strategy for campaigning in the same way as it is used in national election campaigns. This is due to the fact that EP members are organized in parliamentary groups which dominate the European political process. In addition, in the European system there is no president or prime minister who is determined by the vote. At the same time, candidates running for the European Parliament are often relatively unknown politicians and a personalized campaign is therefore not an appropriate strategy. In an attempt to make European elections more interesting but also in order to increase the influence of the parliament among the EU institutions, the European parties nominated European top candidates for the first time in 2014. This new development also suggested a more candidate-focused campaign than in earlier years. Against this background the chapter sets out to assess to what extent and in which form personalized strategies could be found in the advertising of the election campaign in 2014.