Candidates and social networks.

We have been able to verify that the use of tools such as twitter is quite uneven among them, with minority parties making the most use of it. The website Elections 2.0 provides information about the use they make of this social network and allows us to follow political news in a different way. To follow the Basque elections on Twitter, it is essential to know the hastags that are being used, which are: #21O, #EleccionesVascas, #EleccionesEuskadi, #U21 and #hauteskundeak, being #21O and #U21 the most used by Twitter users.

We have been able to verify that the most active candidates on this social network are Gorka Maneiro from UPyD and Aitor Urresti from EQUO Berdeak. Although some have started somewhat later in the art of 140 characters, its impact on the network is still remarkable. This is the case of the candidate for EH Bildu, Laura Mintegi who, with only 147 tweets already She has more than 3,500 followers, and Laura has just launched her blog where she writes about her party’s proposals in both Basque and Spanish and where she will answer questions that are already coming from followers and detractors. The tweets-followers ratio of the rest of the candidates is as follows:

• Gorka Maneiro (UPyD) being one of the most active candidates, with more than 23,000 tweets, he has about 4,000 followers;
• Aitor Urresti (EQUO BERDEAK) with 5,933 has 840 followers.
• Antonio Basagoiti (PP) has tweeted more than 2,000 times and has more than 23,700 followers;
• Patxi López (PSE) has more than 1,200 tweets and more than 156,000 followers;
• Iñigo Urkullu (PNV-EAJ) with more than 1,000 tweets has some 3,600 followers;
• Mikel Arana (Ezker Anitza-IU) with 680 Tweets 750 followers

As for the styles and themes chosen for the tweets, we find a lot of diversity, the most active try to keep up to date with current affairs and strive to answer the questions that come to them, they narrate the different interviews and events in which they participate and also they are leaving brushstrokes on the strong points of their electoral program. On the other hand, the less active tend to tweet relevant official aspects of their party. There is a big difference between those who manage their own account and profile and those who leave it in the hands of their respective press offices, although they all try to be close, we do find differences in the speed of response or in the degree of personalization of the tweets. But regardless of this nuance, by following them we can see what worries them and what their initiatives are.

What are the candidates telling us in their latest tweets? Here are some of them:

@gorka_maneiro (UPyD)

• Savater believes that the PSE’s ‘Basqueism’ is ‘children’s menu nationalism’http://mun.do/TmCPy5via@elmundoes

• “The “plural and democratic” Spain has not had its “real opportunity” in Euskadi until the arrival of UPyD”. F SAVATER.http://www.elcorreo.com/agencias/20120906/mas-actualidad/politica/savater-equipara-vasquismo-nacionalismo-menu_201209061331.html…

• Can you imagine that a product is sanctioned because it only has text in Spanish? They want to do it because they only have Basquehttp://flpbd .it/uqnPt

• Almost 2500 signatures in favor of Free Software… and you, have you already signed?http://www.softwarelibreanahidugu.org/?hizkuntza=es

• And the good news of the day: Nuclenor has not requested the extension of Garoña.#NuclearesNo< a href="https://twitter.com/search/?q=%23ProRenovables&src=hash">#ProRenovables

• @JonMorenoDSSyou have to do an analysis by area, but my bet is always on non-polluting distributed systems: solar, mini-wind

@abasagoiti (PP):

• EH Bildu will set up a portfolio of Food Sovereignty if he manages to govern”. They want some Basques to eat the others for their secession.

• Euskadi, a reference in its way of dealing with the crisis. BBC News – Basque Country experiencing ‘milder recession’http ://bbc.in/PiDKxX

@iurkullu (PNV-EAJ):

• In@radioeuskadi: “#eajpnvwill mark a clear red line so as not to make cuts in Education, Health, Social Services, etc.”.

• “In the Basque Country there is already a ‘whoever earns more pays more’, we must have a serious debate on taxes”.

• “The priority for#eajpnvis to get out of the crisis, and for this we will have to reach extensive agreements with other parties”.

@aranamikel (Ezker Anitza-IU):

• @JulenReal@iuezkerI said that our priority is not to be part of any government, we want to change the system, not manage it.

• @JulenReal@iuezkerif you review the interview the vast majority have been proposals: taxation, 0-2, law of Sev.Soc., animal defense law…

@lauramintegi (EH Bildu):

• @dabidmp galdera ona, Dabid. Hartzen ari naizen konpromisoetako bat da kontaktu zuzena edukitzea eta bloga bezalakorik ez dago 🙂

• “I trust that in the next electoral contest we will have an intelligent political class with human qualities, who know how to live up to the people they want to govern” extracted from her blog lauramintegi.net

As we can see, Twitter has become an ideal tool for minority parties and their new candidates, since it allows them closer and more participative communication with their electorate. Due to its dynamism and the capacity for interaction it offers, it favors this type of less hierarchical parties and where spontaneity is still a degree. The main political forces still do not quite know how to fit this 140-character tool into their busy schedules, pharaonic structures and protocol appearances. Since, still, any number of characters, no matter how small, must go through makeup, which can lessen the capacity for error but also removes dynamism, freshness and closeness, fundamental values ​​in a leader today.

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