Abstract
This chapter focuses on the Italian case, and it addresses two different populist parties—5 Star Movement and League—that played different roles during the pandemic crisis. Whilst the League was in opposition, the M5S was serving in government. As a consequence the two populist parties developed very diverse communication strategy for handling the crisis. The League struggled to adapt its traditional populist claims to the pandemic emergency, whilst the M5S in line with other mainstream parties addressed the crisis by emphasising the institutional role played. In general, the COVID-19 outbreak defused the relevance of some populist issues among citizens and within political debate. Specifically, the League was not able to set the agenda or to claim the ownership on any of the issues under discussion, by contrast the M5S had the chance to manage the crisis and preserving its relevance within the political scenario.
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Notes
- 1.
Notably, a new right-wing party, Fratelli d’Italia (FDI, Brothers of Italy), is probably qualified to be called a populist. However, considering the lesser relevance than of the M5S and the League, it was not included in this chapter because of space constraints.
- 2.
It is necessary to mention that on January 22, 2020, following the resignation of Luigi Di Maio as political head of the M5S, Vito Crimi takes over the leadership of the party on an interim basis. Luigi di Maio remains in any case the most prominent and relevant representative of the M5S due to his government role as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- 3.
All the measures taken by the Italian government are available here: http://www.governo.it/it/coronavirus (last accessed: June 2020).
- 4.
Decree Dpcm 23 febbraio 2020.
- 5.
Decree Dpcm 1 marzo 2020.
- 6.
Decree Dpcm 11 marzo 2020.
- 7.
M. Cremonesi, Riaprire le chiese a Pasqua? Tutti contro Salvini (cattolici compresi). Corriere della Sera, 05/04/20.
- 8.
Eurogruppo, Salvini: ‘C’è il Mes, così è ipoteca sul futuro’. Meloni: ‘Vincono Germania e Olanda’. Il Messaggero, 09/04/20.
- 9.
Di Maio, riaprire? Ce lo diranno esperti. ANSA, 01/04/20.
- 10.
Grignetti, F. Tutti a casa per il coronavirus, crollano i reati del 64%. La Stampa, 20/03/20.
- 11.
Coronavirus, Di Maio: ‘Bisogna mostrare unità e compattezza’. Adnkronos, 21/02/20.
- 12.
D’Argenio, A., Coronavirus, Von der Leyen: ‘La Ue deve scusarsi con l’Italia’. la Repubblica, 16/04/20.
- 13.
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Bertero, A., Seddone, A. (2021). Italy: Populist in the Mirror, (De)Politicizing the COVID-19 from Government and Opposition. In: Bobba, G., Hubé, N. (eds) Populism and the Politicization of the COVID-19 Crisis in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66011-6_4
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