Tweeting about the environment in a European campaign. Are candidates in the European Parliament elections responsive to citizens’ environmental concerns?

At the time of the 2019 European Parliament election, the environment was one of the most important issues among citizens. As the environment represents an important EU policy issue, candidates in this election are expected to respond to public salience and discuss environmental issues during the campaign. However, they may have failed to do this, as European elections are often claimed to be dominated by national issues, implying that they might fail to establish an electoral connection between voters and representatives on EU policy issues. This paper investigates candidates’ responsiveness by assessing whether they increased their focus on environmental issues in their 2019 campaign tweets compared to 2014 in line with the increase in environmental concern among citizens. Results show that candidates respond to citizens’ environmental concerns, especially candidates from GAL parties. These findings indicate that European Parliament elections can serve as an arena to discuss EU policy issues.