Overview of EU legislation on political campaigning in the light of the European Court of Human Rights case law

In this paper, we examine the issue of political speech in the EU legal context, with a particular focus on campaign periods. The paper can be divided into three main parts: (1) situating the conceptual foundations of political speech as a protected value; (2) discussing the general approach to political speech in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, especially in cases dealing specifically with the issue of political speech during campaign periods; and (3) exploring future polemics and challenges to political speech in the EU framework. The paper will also present relevant literature, orientations, and principles of political speech, case studies, and EU legal instruments on political speech and political advertising. It attempts to provide a comprehensive account of the diverse but not uncontroversial nature of political speech through a synthesis of theory and practice.