The article explores how economic crises affect how political parties communicate with different societal groups. By analyzing over 140,000 news events from eleven eurozone countries between 2001 and 2011, the study found that during tough economic times, political parties tend to have less cooperative relationships with groups they are close to, and less conflictual relationships with groups they are not as close to. This means that when the economy is struggling, politicians may change how they interact with different parts of society in their public communication.