What Role for Europe? : An analysis of the political discourse of the heads of state or government of the European Union on Twitter during the first thirty days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Sammanfattning: On 24 February 2022, war returned to Europe, and the EU faced an enormous external crisis at its doorstep. As leaders' words and political discourse play a significant role during crises, it is crucial to study the reaction of EU leaders to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This thesis studies the political discourse on Twitter by the EU’s 27 heads of state or government during the first month following the invasion. While using a conceptual framework on crisis and crisis communication, this thesis conducts a political discourse analysis coding a sample of 745 tweets. It focuses on ‘Europe’ and how the leaders of EU countries tweet about the continent in connection with the war in Ukraine. This thesis is one of the first to study the Twitter response of EU leaders. As the events are recent, there are naturally few similar publications. Besides, this work addresses a gap in comprehensive research of the political discourse by all the EU’s heads of state or government simultaneously. This thesis addresses four contexts in which leaders most frequently address Europe in their tweets. These contexts are (1) European Council summits, (2) the need for unity, (3) the closeness of the war to Europe and (4) EU actions in the context of the invasion. Reasons for action are at the heart of political discourse analysis, and this research elaborates on the main calls, reasons and needs for action as tweeted by the heads of state or government. Addressing the type of words used by the European heads of state or government, this work shows how references to history, future and darkness add to the perceived importance of the war. This thesis’ main finding is that EU leaders tend to build a narrative of importance regarding their actions on the EU level. They do so by emphasising the importance of the war, creating an urgency to act. Overall, this thesis helps construct an understanding of the EU’s uniquely united response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how political discourse has helped constitute cohesion.