On Monday 27 May, Europe wakes up with a new Parliament and is already taking a first look at its electoral process. While it is still too early to draw conclusions, it seems that no disruption is to be noted. However, Facebook's advertising library shows that some parties, such as the far-right Belgian party Vlaams Belang, have clearly 'bombarded' users of the social network.
A significant financial windfall
According to Facebook figures, 356,000 advertisements related to politics or public policy debates have been broadcast on its platform in the last 3 months in the Twenty-seven (excluding the United Kingdom). The amount received by Facebook (and in some cases, invested by the platform) reached nearly 22 million euros for the same period. Germany was particularly targeted, with €3.3 million invested between March and May 2019. Next come Spain (€2.7 million), Belgium (€2.3 million), Italy (€1.7 million) and France (€1.4 million). For the United Kingdom, the reference period is 8 months and shows that 81,000 advertisements were broadcast for a total amount of €5.2 million.
Of course, even if not all the advertisements automatically concerned the European elections, they still show us how much voters were exposed during this election campaign.
Eurosceptic parties: comparison by country
A detailed (but not necessarily exhaustive) analysis shows us that the European Parliament has been a major provider of advertising, with for example €672,000 invested in Germany or €153,000 in the Netherlands. On the other hand, the figure seems derisory in Poland (€25,000).
Sovereignist, ultra-conservative and Eurosceptic parties have also had a great time in some Member States. In Belgium, where a triple election was held (regional, federal and European), the three actors who spent the most money on political advertising in the last 30 days were, in order of importance, the Vlaams Belang (far right), Parliament and the NVA (conservative nationalist right). The Vlaams Belang and the NVA, which together amount to more than €800,000 (€621,000 for the Vlaams Belang and €220,000 for the NVA), both have had excellent results. For the other countries, let us mention the example of Fidesz and Jobbik in Hungary, who together spent half of the amount of political advertising and finally won 14 seats in Parliament. Another example is the People's Party in Denmark, which participated in a quarter of the advertisements and won 1 seat.
In Italy, the Lega spent €142,000 and the 5-star Movement €53,577, relatively little compared to the total of €1.7 million (see above). In France and Spain, there are relatively few traces of the Rassemblement national and Vox.
The European Commission is cautious
Asked more generally about the electoral process, the European Commission spokesman said it was still too early to rejoice. "However, we can clearly see that the measures taken under the action plan against disinformation and our electoral package have helped to deter attacks and denounce attempts at disinformation", said Margaritis Schinas. Facebook's advertising library is in any case a response to the code of good practice against disinformation (see EUROPE 12104/1). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean, with the help of Martin Molko - intern)