Stylometry analysis of the French presidential election

Abstract

Abstract This study analyzes the style and content of 25,590 tweets sent by eight candidates during the French presidential election (from 1 September 2021 to 24 April 2022). During this campaign, the candidates have used Twitter intensively to motivate their supporters, putting forward some propositions or to announce their presence on a TV show or at a rally. This study demonstrates that all candidates have sent more tweets during this period, particularly during the last 2 months. In their tweets, they have put forward their propositions by including mentions (@ZemmourEric), hashtags (#Elysee2022), and URLs to information sources supporting their views. As main topics, economic concern ranks first (36% of all tweets) followed by security questions (16.4%) and ecology (13.7%) with the intensity varying among runners. The main target of their criticisms was the incumbent president Macron, with only a few attacks on other candidates. Finally, one can observe a more intense use of Twitter by extreme political parties compared to traditional ones.