National but European? Visual manifestations of Europe in national parties’ Euromanifestos since 1979

Sebastian Adrian Popa, Delia Dumitrescu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The architects of the European project made a significant effort to create a set of symbols for the community (such as the EU flag, the map of Europe, the anthem, etc.), and recent evidence suggests that the main European values are nowadays spontaneously associated with them. We know little, however, about if and when national political actors choose to display these symbolic visual manifestations of Europe. In this study, we examine the presence of such symbols in parties’ Euromanifestos since the first European elections. The presence of EU community symbols is correlated with several factors, suggesting that the display is consistent both with a policy-driven and with a vote-seeking logic. We explore at length the implications of these results for future visual analysis of parties’ European messages and for the larger issue of European identity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)526-537
Number of pages12
JournalParty Politics
Volume23
Issue number5
Early online date16 Oct 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2017

Keywords

  • European identity
  • European symbols
  • political parties
  • public opinion

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