Environmental concern has risen in Europe in recent years and the 2019 European election took place in a context in which EU citizens considered the environment as one of the most important issues facing their country and the EU. I argue that this, together with the fact that environmental issues are particularly relevant in EU policy and that citizens generally acknowledge the importance of EU action in this domain, should have provided politicians with incentives to be responsive to citizens’ environmental concerns and, hence, incorporate environmental issues in their campaign.

This would imply that an EU policy issue was relevant during the campaign and would contradict the ‘second-order elections’ theory that posits that parties mainly focus on national topics. Such finding would add to the literature strand that indicates that European issues are relevant in European elections, highlighting the importance of such elections. At the same time, it would suggest that citizens’ environmental concerns are being represented in the EU system (at least to some extent).

I test whether this was the case by analysing the impact of citizens’ environmental salience prior to the 2019 campaign on politicians’ environmental salience. The latter is computed through a quantitative content analysis of tweets of candidates in top positions posted during the three weeks before the election, covering eight EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain). Salience is measured with tweets because these represent a direct communication from politicians to citizens and have a larger reach than party manifestos.