getting enthusiastic about a hot topic

[borhane]

Hi,
Is there an idiom that means that the public are debating and arguing with enthusiasm over a hot topic?
Thank you in advance

[Raymott]

Hi,
Is there an idiom that means that the public are debating and arguing with enthusiasm over a hot topic?
Thank you in advance

If it's something not serious, you can say, "It has caught the public's imagination". You could say that about a movie star's antics, or UFO reports, or the discovery of a missing link fossil, etc. but not for something seriously political or social.

[borhane]

Unfortunately I need it in a political context.

[probus]

Well there is such an idiom, but unfortunately it's not really English. We have borrowed it from the French. But here in Canada, at least, it is commonly used:
Cause célèbre

I suspect it is not much used in the rest of the English speaking world. If using it in English, I would of course omit the accents.

[Tdol]

If something is a hot topic, people are debating/discussing it- hot topic is enough IMO.

[freezeframe]

Well there is such an idiom, but unfortunately it's not really English. We have borrowed it from the French. But here in Canada, at least, it is commonly used:
Cause célèbre

I suspect it is not much used in the rest of the English speaking world. If using it in English, I would of course omit the accents.

Good phrase but not restricted to politics. Could be anything.

[JTRiff]

Not teacher

Well, there's a political football, meaning a hot topic that's being passed around.
The buzz in Washington is...

The CNN page is called 'Political Hot Topics.'

[freezeframe]

Hot button issue

Heavily politicized issues are often called "hot button issues" because almost any position taken is sure to please one group of people and offend another.