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Tabloid press 'had influence' on EU election

Staff reporter
Staff reporter - [email protected]
Tabloid press 'had influence' on EU election
EU flag. Photo: APA/PATRICK SEEGER

The results of the EU election has confirmed the strong influence of the tabloid press in Austria, according to an analysis by pollsters.

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Thirty percent of Krone, Österreich, and Heute readers voted for the EU-sceptic right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), 29 percent for the Socialist Party (SPÖ), and only 23 percent for the party who won the election, the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP).

Pollsters Fritz Plasser and Franz Sommer did an analysis of the vote and concluded that the tabloids, which are overwhelmingly sceptical of the EU, had an influence on the social and political opinions of their readers.

Forty-three percent of Krone readers voted for an EU-sceptic party, and 37 percent of those votes were for the FPÖ. Plasser and Sommer said that their analysis shows that every second Krone reader is sceptical of the EU, or downright against it.

Overall the actual election results showed that of those who voted, a third voted for EU-sceptic parties.

Of those of didn’t vote in the EU elections, and who regularly read the Krone, 60 percent were sceptical or hostile towards the EU. This shows an "unmistakably close relationship between the political editorial line of the tabloid media and an above-average euro scepticism in its readers,” Plasser and Sommer said.

Their analysis also found a strong correlation between readers’ attitudes towards the EU, and their assessment of social conditions. Three quarters of EU-sceptical voters had the impression that income and opportunities in life are distributed unfairly in Austria.

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