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How did the Internet react to Juncker's State of the Union speech?

How did the Internet react to Juncker's State of the Union speech?
By Ana De Oliva

Google searches, tweets and controversy.

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, delivered today his State of the Union speech before the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

Juncker talked Brexit, refugees, the euro, all of which are prone to spark controversy in parliament and, of course, online.

Here’s a quick summary of how Twitter and Google users reacted to Juncker’s one-hour speech.

During the speech, European users searched for different political issues alongside Juncker’s name.

This map shows the top themes searched by country.

The most popular search was “Brexit”, hitting top marks in Sweden, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Bulgaria.

Interestingly enough, the Brits were most interested in looking up “taxes” during Juncker’s speech, as were the Dutch, the Portuguese and the Danes.

Germany and Poland were keen to know more about the “economy” whilst, on a similar note, France and Belgium searched for “employment” and Croatia for “unemployment”.

Italians were looking up “eurozone”. This is not a surprise since Italy’s main opposition parties are calling for a new currency to flank the euro.

“Refugees” were the main concern in Finland, while “health” was the top hit in Spain and “education” was the most popular search in Austria.

On Twitter, MEPs and citizens came together to comment on the speech.

Some users liked the issues Juncker aims to tackle.



The Italian PM thanked Juncker for praising Italy’s efforts on immigration.


(Thank you to @JunckerEU for his words on immigration and for raising the European profile on his speech).

But this Spanish activist found Juncker’s speech slightly ambiguous.


(“We must intensify deportations”, says Juncker, one minute after having said “Europe is the continent of solidarity”. Terrific.)

And so did this MEP from Germany.


They weren’t the only ones to feel confused about what the president of the European Commission was saying. Actually, his comments on cybersecurity sparked some cynical reactions.



When it comes to Juncker’s view that all EU states should join the euro, Twitter was also divided.

Some thought it was a daring proposal…


Others were a bit sceptical…


… and thought it was a good thing the UK opted out.


Speaking of which, as expected, the UK had a lot to say on Juncker’s address.



Some were on the same page as Juncker and said Brexit wouldn’t spoil the party.


But this MEP seemed to think the mood was long gone.


And while some thought Juncker spoke too much….


Others thought he kept too much to himself.


Today, three YouTubers will interview President Juncker. If you have anything you’d like to ask him, send us your question using #AskJunker and join us at 14:00 CEST.

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