The right-wing alliance at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic: all change? Published

Josh Allen on 28th April 2021

Matteo Salvini stands at a lectern indoors, with a logo of the Italian republic emblazoned in silver in front of the battery of microphones mounted on the podium. He is a white man in his late 40s with short dark, straight dark brown hair. A short beard can be glimpsed beneath the facemask he wears which is in the colours of the Italian tricolor. He wears a dark grey suit, a white shirt and a dark blue tie. Flags and another middle aged man, also in a suit and wearing a surgical blue/green facemask can be seen behind him

“The right-wing alliance at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic: all change?” an article by PiAP’s Principal Investigator Daniele Albertazzi, University of Birmingham PhD student Donatella Bonansinga and PiAP’s Italy focused Research Fellow Mattia Zulianello was published in Contemporary Italian Politics yesterday.

Donatella explains that in the article:

Daniele Albertazzi, Mattia Zulianello and I, assess change and continuity on the Italian (populist) right. We argue that, despite changes in leadership, shifts in power relations and conflicting stances during the pandemic, this coalition shows important elements of continuity too, especially in terms of ideological messages and electoral support.  Our analysis scans the year 2020 by looking at 5 key turning points, examining how parties and leaders of the Italian right reacted to these salient events on Twitter. It also reconstructs the evolution of their support in voting intention polls throughout the year.

You can read the article in full here.