Framing Political Leadership on Twitter: A Comparative Analysis of Digital Campaign Strategies in Greece’s 2023 Parliamentary Elections

This paper examines how Twitter was strategically used during Greece’s 2023 parliamentary elections, focusing on the two main political contenders. We address critical gaps in political marketing literature regarding social media campaign strategies in Southern European parliamentary elections, specifically examining how Twitter functions as a strategic communication platform during electoral competition in post-crisis Greece. Limited research exists on Southern European democracies, technocratic versus populist communication approaches, and post-pandemic electoral strategies. Through comparative frame analysis of 574 tweets from the pre-electoral period, we explore how political actors construct and disseminate narratives to influence public opinion. Our research identifies divergent framing patterns: Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis projects a stable, technocratic, performance-driven leadership brand, while Alexis Tsipras adopts movement-oriented, emotionally charged, anti-establishment discourse. Through systematic qualitative frame analysis, the study demonstrates greater strategic consistency and branding coherence in technocratic approaches than fragmented oppositional strategies in post-crisis electoral contexts. These differences in strategic communication correlated with differential electoral outcomes, though our qualitative methodology examines communication patterns rather than establishing causal effectiveness. Future research should examine how these digital campaign strategies translate across different platform ecosystems and electoral systems, particularly regarding the long-term effects of technocratic versus populist digital branding on democratic engagement.