Sentiment scores
In the 77,000 tweets in which the party leaders were specifically mentioned, clear shifts are visible, such as a general downward trend in sentiment. We see that a lot has been tweeted about the euro crisis and about Europe and to a lesser extent about healthcare costs (higher deductible); subjects that contain a lot of negative sentiment. Hence this downward trend. The picture is in line with the decreased consumer confidence in our country. According to the CBS, we have even reached the lowest point since the summer of 2003 with -40 points.
We see a negative trend with VVD leader Rutte, just like with Buma and Wilders (negative sentiment). Slob continues to do well, since April the CU leader has achieved a consistently high sentiment score. This also applies to Samsom and especially to Roemer, who drops in the last week of June. The tweets in which Roemer is mentioned show that his persistent high score in polls provokes a counter-reaction among tweeters. Envious traits do not seem strange to the Dutch tweeter.
Extremely transparent
GroenLinks leader Sap is having a hard time in June, due to the negative publicity surrounding the internal elections and rival candidate Dibi. The fact that the exceptionally transparent party board made the evaluation of the candidates public did not really lead to a more positive sentiment. Given the low number of observations, Sap's score in week 22 has not been included in the graph, as that would give a highly distorted (and unrepresentative) picture.
June, we see that Sap scores highest on the theme 'sadness', laos telegram data namely twice as much as the rest. This ties in with the aforementioned image of unrest and fuss at GroenLinks. Wilders is most visible on 'Europe' and the liberals Rutte and Pechtold on 'economy'.
The second half of June shows a different picture. Rutte has drawn 'Europe' to himself, while Roemer is most often linked to 'economy'. For the rest, the party leaders have thematically moved closer together. The PVV leader has become invisible: he does the least well on almost all themes.
Wilders
The shrinking of the PVV is the most striking thing in this TwitterMonitor: it can be seen in all components: the conversation share, the sentiment score and the semantic analysis. While Wilders' party was still dominant on 'Europe' in May and early June, the PVV completely slumps in the second half of June.
The much-discussed tolerated partner of the Rutte I cabinet lost audience in June. There is also less talk about Wilders on Twitter, while the 140-character messages are precisely his favorite way of communicating. From this perspective, the most recent incidents could well be a bleshing in disguise : the PVV is back in the spotlight. We will continue to follow the circus.