Who would be the winner of social networks’ elections at the European Parliament? It is likely that the EPP, EP’s largest political grouping would obtain the highest score: Joseph Daul MEP, the French EPP group leader alone gathers 9.000 fans. The Greens group comes second thanks to the charismatic 1968 leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit and his over 7.000 fans on his official fan page and many other unofficial ones. The ALDE group comes third. Guy Verhofstadt, considered by the press as one of the likely candidates to replace Mr. Barroso, gathers about 5.000 fans plus 5.000 friends on his personal profile. Conversely, Martin Schulz, the S&D leader has 5.000 contacts on his personal profile too, but only 3.000 fans.
Nowadays, MEPs need to learn how to use social networks. That’s why they go to the school of 2.0 politics. Damien Abad, a 30 year old French MEP organised the first course on Facebook and Twitter for euro-politicians. Following the first lesson’s success other new meetings are scheduled in the forthcoming months. The Parliament started using social networks systematically since the 2009 electoral campaign and now more than 90.000 fans like its Facebook fan page and 4.000 follow it on Twitter in English.
Within the Commissioners, College Commissioner for humanitarian aid and civil protection Kristalina Georgieva manages to gather over over 9.000 fans in total on three different pages. This number puts her largely ahead of her colleague Catherine Ashton, High Representative for EU External Relations. Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, has about 3.000 fans and her colleague Karel de Gucht, Commissioner for Trade only 2.000. Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom and Commissioner for Climate Change Connie Hedegaard lag behind with only 1.000 fans each.
Nowadays, is politics made not only by votes but also by “I likes”?
Article by Andrea Garnero
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