Year: 2019

Authors: Gergő Papp, Matúš Mikšík, Jakub Chabik, Ondrej Gažovič, Kārlis Ralfs Lapiņš, Veronika Špalková, Anna Maria Trawińska, Milosz Hodun, Catinca Hanganu and Serban Marinescu

Elections to the European Parliament in Central and Eastern Europe proved that emotions play an important role in political discourse. The primary axis of the European narrative was built around stories that captivate the imagination and concern issues that are most understandable to people, not around charts and meticulously thought-out arguments. As much as resorting to a play on emotions is not surprising to populists, when it comes to liberals, we observed a new, one could say, un-typical, campaign. In this publication, experts from Central Europe show how storytelling and the use of play on emotions influenced the elections. They sketch out the essential developments on the political scene in the region with a reflective analysis of the newest mechanisms used by key actors.