19/2023 L'EUROPE UNIE/UNITED EUROPE, PARIS, The EU foreign and security dilemmas in a challenging world : LʹEurope unie/United Europe / coord.: dr. Mihaela Daciana Natea, dr. Simion Costea. - Cluj- Napoca : Napoca Star, 2023 ISBN 978-606-062-711-1, 19/2023 L'Europe unie SPECIAL volume, 147 pages, PARIS: Print ISSN: 0248-2851 PRINT ISSN 2780-8173, On line ISSN: 2743-4052 Linking ISSN (ISSN-L): 2743-4052 EAN: 99782749700519, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21481.47207, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.15505129 What Do National Parties Campaign on during European Elections? Trends from Romania(What Do National Parties Campaign on during European Elections? Trends from Romania) Author(s): Mihaela Ivănescu, Luiza Maria Filimon Language: English Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences Issue: 20/20/2023 Page Range: 119-135 No. of Pages: 17 Keywords: EU; European elections; electoral campaign; European themes; party manifestos; political discourse; Romanian parties; Summary/Abstract: European elections generally arouse less interest from voters compared to national elections, often because during the electoral campaigns the topics of debate of national interest end up receiving more attention than those focusing on the European Union. The discourse on Europe thus becomes marginal and the essence of the European elections is diluted by local debates or driven by inter-party ideological disputes. In Romania, 2019 marked a peak moment in the turnout during the country’s fourth European election which saw more than 50% of the voters participate in the polls. However, this should not be confused with a sudden increase in Romanians’ interest in European politics. Using discourse analysis, this paper analyzes the political platforms that the main political parties in Romania campaigned on during the 2019 European elections as we attempt to answer the following question: How much did the Romanian parties focus on messages emphasizing the idea of Europe and how much did they cling to the usual national arguments?