Italy: Populist in the Mirror, (De)Politicizing the COVID-19 from Government and Opposition

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.