Can the Spitzenkandidat Process Increase the Politicisation of the EU?

This paper explores whether the lead candidates process for the European Commission’s Presidency (Spitzenkandidat) can increase the politicisation of the EU. Ahead of 2014 and 2019 EU elections, the European political parties based on Article 17(7) of the Treaty on European Union, nominated their Spitzenkandidaten to increase the politicisation of the elections and reverse the ongoing status of low turnouts among others. The research, using the politicisation index and employing claim-making analysis focuses on the levels of political contestation that the Spitzenkandidat process resulted in within the German, Luxembourgish, French, Belgian, Spanish, Italian, Greek, and British press in 2014 and 2019 European elections. While in 2014, the political innovation brought an increasing politicisation in certain member states, in 2019, its impact was rather limited.