Keyword – European Parliamentary election

Krisztina, Burai – Virág, Bagi – Vanessza, Juhász:

A Comparative Analysis of Hungarian Political Leaders’ 2024 EP Campaigns on Facebook

This study examines the social media communication of the 2024 European Parliamentary election campaign in Hungary, which was rendered particularly complex by the simultaneous organisation of municipal and EP elections and the emergence of Péter Magyar as a new challenger of the incumbent Fidesz/Christian Democrats party alliance. The study investigates the prevalence and forms of populist elements in the Facebook communication of leading candidates of party lists that secured mandates, as well as how this new political context influenced their campaign strategies. The analysis is based on a manual content analysis of 509 Facebook posts, incorporating the examination of both textual and visual content. The findings indicate that campaign communication focused predominantly on national political issues, while topics related to the European Union remained marginal. The visual analysis also reveals marked differences in symbolic repertoires, with patriotic symbols used more extensively than EU-related imagery across candidates. The use of negative campaigning varied substantially across candidates, whereas populist elements appeared in the communication of all three actors under study, albeit in distinct structural patterns. Government-aligned communication was primarily characterised by fear-based appeals and war-related narratives, while opposition strategies relied mainly on elite criticism. Overall, the analysis highlights the fragmented and selective use of populist strategies in the social media practices of the Hungarian EP campaign.

Keywords: European Parliamentary election, Hungarian municipal election, multimodal analysis, populist communication, social media communication