The European Commission Recovery Plan for Europe in French Twitter Public Sphere: Opportunity and Restraint for the Legitimacy of the European Union

Chadelle, Pierre (2023) The European Commission Recovery Plan for Europe in French Twitter Public Sphere: Opportunity and Restraint for the Legitimacy of the European Union. The Hive Journal (1). pp. 1-27. ISSN 2977-3954

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Abstract

This article explores the online public debate on Twitter, that followed the announcement by the European Commission on the 27th May 2020, of a plan for €750 billion borrowed directly by the Commission to tackle the historic economic depression associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan appeared to break with the traditional understanding of the commission, politicising rather than depoliticising a non-consensual policy, thereby exiting patterns that were long associated with the lack of legitimacy of the European Union. Proposing a novel approach which combines a content analysis of French politicians, media, and citizens’ debates on Twitter in a mixed methods approach, I have shown that the proposal’s main dimensions were a significant part of media coverage and were mostly neutral or positive. The hypothesis of a significantly fragmented media environment was refuted. However, important differences were found in terms of elite framing opposing populists to pro-European parties. On one side the opposition was framed in discourses of sovereignty, and the threat to national democracy. On the other, the recovery plan was described as a historical moment in European integration displaying the solidarity of the Union. If the plan was significantly present in elite and media discourse, the French general public scarcely debated the issue considering the scope of the proposal and its significance for the European Union. For the public that effectively participated, the findings of this article illustrate how the mechanisms that were historically associated with the European Union “communication deficit” can also positively contribute to the legitimacy of the policy proposal when elite and media discourse changes.