We have followed 1,579 candidates and tracked their Twitter conversations for two weeks now. Also, we collected 400,000 citizens’ retweets and replies to candidates’ tweets.
Interestingly enough, the presence of hashtags such as #itaexit and #noEU suggests a clear link – in the ‘national closure’ discourse – between anti-immigration and anti-European sentiment.
Populist parties have a higher capacity to exploit digital arenas to boost and propagate their slogans and influence the political agenda. This should not be underestimated by mainstream political forces.
