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Germany had its federal election on Sunday 24 September. Overall 34 parties, led by candidates like Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz, compete for seats in the Bundestag.

Public emotions tend to run high when it comes to elections. This German election campaigns started off slowly, as polarising topics such as refugee policy or LGBT rights were addressed with caution. More topics were added and marked the debates.

The SSIX project developed a tool that maps the public sentiment on social media about the main candidates, parties and topics discussed during the German elections.

That allows us to analyse, for example, which topics gained importance within the campaigns, how the sentiment towards a politician or party changes over time and after campaign appearances.

EURACTIV invites you to this one hour long online Twitter Chat to explore the following questions:
• Do you think opinions expressed on social media are a good proxy for overall public sentiment?
• Did candidates (most) often mentioned on social media also succeed better/best at the elections?
• Were the most polarising topics on social media also the ones most discussed offline?
• Did public sentiment change after the #GermanElections, towards the winners and losers?
• What role can sentiment analysis play in political campaigns?
• Can sentiment analysis be used to bridge the gap between citizens and politicians?


Instructions for TWITTER CHAT
A Twitter Chat occurs when a group of Twitter users meets at a pre-arranged date and time to discuss a specific topic that uses a designated #hashtag (in this case #SSIX).
The host of the Tweet Chat posts questions that are usually identified as Q1, Q2 and so on, to promote answers, which are usually identified as A1, A2 and so on, from the participants of the Tweet Chat.
Tweet Chats usually last about an hour. The hashtag links the questions and answers in a virtual conversation.

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