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Who are the most active and influential politicians and parties on Twitter? The case of Germany

Political elites increasingly use Twitter as an instrument to spread their views. Yet, it is hard to come by up-to-date descriptive statistics that would tell us how active and influential politicians, as well as parties, are on Twitter. With the election looming (26th of September 2021) in Germany, the present study attempts to provide a descriptive, comparative and up-to-date overview of Twitter activity/influence across politicians and parties. It analyzes around 125,000 recent tweets, published by around 550 active politicians. Among other things, the study reveals that the share of Twitter users is lowest among members of the CDU/CSU, while there is strong variation in terms of activity (tweets) across and within parties, as well as across time. Regarding influence, well-known members of centrist parties dominate follower statistics, however, members of the populist left and right dominate in terms of retweets. Finally, AfD politicians get more retweets per tweet than members of other parties.