Themes, styles, and tendencies of the European political poster. Analysis of the 2009 and 2014 European election campaigns

Abstract

This chapter investigates the iconographic/visual and verbal/discursive dimensions of over 1500 posters produced in all European Union countries for the European elections in 2009 and 2014. It identifies the prevailing communicative models, styles, and trends across the different countries, geographical areas, and European party families. And it spotlights the poster's longevity, how campaigns are personalized, the decline of the political/ideological dimension, the spread of the formats and templates from commercial advertising, the lack of transnational campaigns, the invisibility of the European Commission presidency candidates, the prevalence of the national dimension, and Europe's growing prominence in campaigns (largely in a negative sense) because of the economic recession. Various specific geographic or political factors of note emerge: personalization is clearly more marked in Northern and Eastern Europe; opposition parties use particular iconographies and symbolic repertoires; the Eurosceptic and anti-European front are much more adept than their pro-European counterparts at creating transnational images and slogans; and the Green parties lead the way on internationalizing their campaigns. In the author's view, this collection of factors constitutes a specific European culture of political communication.