Politics on Facebook: Populist parties choose divisive issues on purpose

Election researchers from across Europe have looked at how populist parties present themselves on Facebook. Their findings are quite clear.

“Populist parties much more often use controversial, divisive issues when they want to show themselves to potential voters,” says Melanie Magin.

She is a professor of media sociology at NTNU’s Department of Sociology and Political Science.

Magin and her fellow researchers believe this is probably quite deliberate in order to get the debate into a track that these parties believe benefits them.

Controversial and divisive

The elections to the European Parliament in 2024 took place in a turbulent time. The war in Ukraine was in full swing, a large number of immigrants became a big issue in several countries, and climate change was still something most people cared about.

With this as a backdrop, it's tempting for some political parties to raise so-called wedge issues, which are controversial issues that divide voters. They can easily be used strategically in an election campaign to create strong emotions and sow doubt about other political parties’ ability and willingness to address them.

The researchers analysed 8,748 Facebook posts from parties in 13 countries. They looked at both whether the posts raised controversial issues, and how these issues were presented.

Perhaps the main finding is not surprising in itself, but it may be surprising that the result is so clear.

“We find that populist parties don’t just use controversial issues more. They also generally present the message in a more populist way, with anti-liberal language,” says Magin.

Them versus us

The purpose is often apparently to exclude outsiders and create the impression that it is 'them versus us.'

“These are clear characteristics of digital communication for populist parties,” the researcher says.

Digital platforms shape the debate through clear messages, but can also contribute to an oversimplification of complicated topics. 

Especially in times when several controversial issues are unfolding at once, the approach contributes to creating division in society and poses an irreconcilable way of communicating.

“We believe that topics such as migration policy can be used by populist actors as a kind of Trojan horse. The intention may be to steer the public political discussion away from problem solving and instead create a debate about the very liberal democratic basis of our society,” says Magin.

Reference:

Haßler et al. Weaponizing Wedge Issues: Strategies of Populism and Illiberalism in European Election Campaigning on Facebook, Media and Communication, vol. 13, 2025. DOI: 10.17645/mac.10718

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