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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Spain and Facebook in the 2019 EP Election Campaign

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The 2019 European Parliament (EP) election in Spain took place against a backdrop of parliamentary instability and the unresolved Catalan problem that contributed to political polarisation. The EP electoral campaign also coincided with campaigns at local, regional and national levels. The results indicate that all Spanish parties do not use Facebook for interaction, but only for top-down argumentation. Although major Spanish parties continue to lead the activity on Facebook, the populist parties monopolise users’ engagement. Finally, the findings clearly show that the 2019 European election in Spain was no longer a second-, but a third-order election.