Weaponizing Wedge Issues: Strategies of Populism and Illiberalism in European Election Campaigning on Facebook

Jörg Haßler, Melanie Magin, Uta Russmann, Anna-Katharina Wurst, Delia Cristina Balaban, Paweł Baranowski, Jakob Linaa Jensen, Simon Kruschinski, Georgios Lappas, Sara Machado, Martina Novotná, Silvia Marcos-García, Ioannis Petridis, Anda Rožukalne, Annamária Sebestyén and Felix‐Christopher von Nostitz
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Jörg Haßler: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany
Melanie Magin: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Uta Russmann: Department of Media, Society and Communication, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Anna-Katharina Wurst: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany
Delia Cristina Balaban: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Romania
Paweł Baranowski: Institute of Journalism and Social Communication, University of Wrocław, Poland
Jakob Linaa Jensen: Department of Media and Journalism Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
Simon Kruschinski: Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany
Georgios Lappas: Communication and Digital Media Department, University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Sara Machado: Transdisciplinary Research Center for Culture, Space and Memory (CITCEM), University of Porto, Portugal
Martina Novotná: Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Silvia Marcos-García: Department of Communication Sciences, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Ioannis Petridis: Communication and Digital Media Department, University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Anda Rožukalne: Social Sciences Research Centre, Riga Stradiņš University, Latvia
Annamária Sebestyén: Institute for Political Science, Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN) Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary
Felix‐Christopher von Nostitz: ESPOL-LAB, Université Catholique de Lille, France

Media and Communication, 2025, vol. 13

Abstract: The 2024 European Parliament elections took place against a backdrop of overlapping crises, including climate change, migration, and the Russian war against Ukraine, all of which have the potential to drive political polarization. These wedge issues can be strategically used in campaign communication to activate strong emotional and moral responses, exploit societal divisions, and fracture opposing coalitions. When combined with populist communication and illiberal rhetoric, they align closely with the attention dynamics of social media but also carry potential dangers for democratic discourse. However, research on how these elements are combined in parties’ campaign communication remains limited. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive manual quantitative content analysis of 8,748 Facebook posts from parties in 13 EU member states, examining how wedge issues were communicated and combined with populism and illiberalism during the 2024 European Parliament elections. Our analyses reveal that populist parties relied more heavily on wedge issues and combined them with populist communication and illiberal rhetoric more often than non-populist parties. Certain wedge issues appeared more conducive to these elements than others. The combination of wedge issues with populist communication and illiberal rhetoric as exclusionary rhetorical strategies thus emerges as a defining feature of populist digital campaigning. These elements can be seen as mutually reinforcing tools that structure harmful political interpretation patterns, particularly in times of polycrises. This underscores how digital platforms can be used to redefine the contours of democratic debate, making it even more essential to understand the communicative mechanisms through which parties influence public discourse in order to defend democracy.

Keywords: election campaigning; European Parliament elections; European Union; Facebook; illiberalism; issue strategies; populism; social media; wedge issues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2025:a:10718

DOI: 10.17645/mac.10718

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