How to Win Elections – Lessons from France

The French progressive campaigner Guillaume Liegey visited Das Progressive Zentrum.

Important elections lie ahead in Germany. In the autumn of 2017, the German federal election will take place and prior to that, there is the politically highly significant state election in North Rhine-Westphalia. Against this background, we invited Guillaume Liegey to Das Progressive Zentrum in order to share some of his ideas about modern campaigning strategies.

From 4th to 5th October 2016 he met German decision-makers and strategists from various organizations. Among others, Guillaume discussed with Heiko Kretschmer, founder and director of Johannsen + Kretschmer (the leading agency during the SPD election campaign 2013), and Robert Heinrich, head of the department for public relations and campaigns at Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Questions raised referred to: What can we learn from past elections in Germany and other countries, such as France or the ongoing campaigning in the US? How can more voters be reached and mobilized? Is door-to-door campaigning the best strategy? And what are effective strategies to cope with populist parties?

The best campaigns today successfully combine data, digital and human.

Guillaume Liegey

Guillaume Liegey was the National Field Director of François Hollande’s presidential campaign in 2012. With his data-driven field campaign strategy he reached out to 5 million households and developed training tools for 6.000 field organizers. Based on his experiences he co-founded an electoral campaign technology firm, Liegey Muller Pons (LMP), which has already worked on campaigns in 14 countries across Europe and is currently collaborating with former French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron’s new political movement “En Marche”.

Authors

Dominic Schwickert

Geschäftsführer des Progressiven Zentrums
Dominic Schwickert ist seit Ende 2012 Geschäftsführer des Progressiven Zentrums. Er hat langjährige Erfahrung in der Politik- und Strategieberatung (u.a. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Bertelsmann Stiftung, IFOK GmbH, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, Deutscher Bundestag, Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie).

Tanja Hille

Projektassistentin
War von 2015 bis 2017 Project Assistant im Progressiven Zentrum. Studierte Politikwissenschaft an der Freien Universität Berlin und an der National Taiwan University in Taipeh. Sammelte praktische Erfahrungen in der Geschäftsstelle der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft und im Bereich der Public Sector Beratung. Engagiert sich für die europapolitische Bildung an Berufsschulen und bei der Berlin Debating Union für eine offene Debattenkultur.

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