Political Contestation Through Salience? Parliamentary Written Questions on Turkey in the European Parliament (2009–2024)

Abstract

Can the positions of national political parties on the ideological spectrum explain MEPs' efforts, and even contestation, to highlight specific issues through parliamentary written questions (PWQs)? While existing literature extensively explores the representativeness and pluralistic capture of PWQs in the European Parliament, it has yet to operationalize PWQs from the perspective of MEPs' issue preferences. Building on the link between salience theory, which argues that parties compete not only on policy substance but also on shifting issue salience, and the transformation of the structure of contestation in European politics, which posits that sociocultural issues have become more decisive than the traditional left-right spectrum, this study reveals how salience through PWQs is a component of patterns of contestation in the EP. The highly politicized and divisive context of Turkey within the EU makes it an ideal case study for examining contestation over issue salience. As parties understand what Turkey's salience represents to the public, choosing to emphasize or de-emphasize it becomes a political decision aligned with their political stance. This study introduces a novel methodology to analyse contestation over issue salience, examining all PWQs (n = 2484) on Turkey from EP7 to EP9 (2009–2024). The findings challenge the prevailing literature that attributes PWQ patterns solely to cultural or institutional factors, suggesting that ideological influences, particularly the socio-cultural dimension, provide a more accurate explanation for the patterns of contestation on issue salience than the traditional left-right dimension. Meanwhile, national disputes, such as Turkey's disputes with Cyprus and Greece, along with domestic political developments like Brexit, also impact MEPs' salience preferences through PWQs.