The 2022 presidential election: what happened on Facebook?

ABSTRACT

This article aims to retrace the main stages of the 2022 Italian presidential election through the messages spread within the Web environment. In particular, it investigates the digital communication on Facebook of the main political leaders and parties involved, as a privileged perspective from which to understand contemporary Italian politics. To achieve these objectives, the article is divided into three sections. First, it discusses the main challenges of presidential elections over the last twenty years, by observing how digital disruption has transformed their fundamental dynamics and political actors’ communication strategies. Second, it employs methodological approaches that are based on digital methods and content analysis to explore the digital discourse of both party leaders and their respective parties before, during and after the 2022 election. More specifically, it analyses how they used Facebook as a primary tool to inform and engage with both citizens and mainstream media, as well as to shape political bargaining. Overall, the article argues that, although Italy’s presidential race lacks any formal list of candidates, as the election is largely decided behind closed doors, the spread of digital platforms has to some extent brought the manoeuvring between political forces into public view introducing, to some extent, a new phase of campaigning. Finally, it shows how presidential elections in the Web environment have contributed to presidential personalization in Italy and explores complementary reasons why digital platforms have acquired a new centrality in the Italian political environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Presidential election
• Head of State
• Italian politics
• political leaders
• digital platforms
• personalization
• digital communication

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results was realised within the framework of the Research Project of National Interest (PRIN) 2020-2023, ‘Monocratic Government. The Impact of Personalisation on Contemporary Political Regimes’. Principal Investigator: Professor Fortunato Musella.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘There is no previous, open, public, and transparent debate on the merits and the qualities of the candidates before the actual voting begins, and there are no official candidates, that is, no political personality has ever declared his intention to “run for” the presidency. Usually, even several months before the election, a certain number of names are tossed around by political supporters, pundits, and commentators. While the pool of personalities owning the necessary credentials – paramount among which is a long political career – is quite limited, it has always been extremely difficult to predict the winner. Overall, in almost all the cases, the front-runners have not succeeded in being elected’ (Pasquino 2015, 83). However, the Italian Constitution does not include any rule forbidding campaigning for the Italian presidency.

2. The term became a neologism according to the Treccani encyclopaedia. This method, reserved for members only, provided for two rounds: at the first, the members themselves could propose candidates for the presidency of the Republic; at the second, they could choose one of the ten names proposed by the largest number of participants at the first round. In 2013, the M5s formally chose Stefano Rodotà as its potential candidate, in 2015 Ferdinando Imposimato.

3. This strategy is also useful when they are not formally recorded in official documents or displayed through parliamentary behaviour. See Ceron (2016).

4. For the purposes of sampling, we decided to focus on political parties with at least five seats in Parliament.

5. The category ‘news and gossip’ includes both press reviews and current events from online newspapers shared via links and/or commented on by leaders and parties.

6. To derive the position of each political actor on the map, we calculated the percentage of a type of post by summing the occurrences of the coupled types (e.g. the percentage of argumentative posts published by a single political actor was calculated by dividing their number by the sum of argumentative and celebratory posts). Then, we subtracted the percentages for each couple of types (e.g. the percentage of argumentative posts minus the percentage of celebratory ones) to obtain a number ranging from −1 to+1.

7. Post available at https://www.facebook.com/116716651695782/posts/5169407249760005. In the same post, Berlusconi reinforced his idea of blocking Draghi’s run for the Quirinale.

8. On the same day, Mattarella’s spokesperson, Giovanni Grasso, published a photo of the move in progress showing President Mattarella moving out of the Quirinale. https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2022/01/22/news/elezioni_quirinale_2022_portavoce_mattarella_pubblica_foto_scatoloni-334857018/.

9. Unsurprisingly, Salvini continued his permanent campaigning: around 76% of the party’s pages and 70% of his own focused on traditional issues such as immigration, law and order, or even terrorism.

10. Announcement of the candidacies of Elisabetta Belloni and then of Elisabetta Casellati enlarged the pool of women by establishing as necessary credentials, candidates’ genders. Gender seemed to bypass competence and previous political experience.

11. The Facebook post published by IV to oppose the candidacy of Elisabetta Belloni is available at https://www.facebook.com/1000392486681830/posts/4728045180583190.

12. The Facebook post published by IV to promote a petition to elect the ‘Mayor of Italy’ is available at https://www.facebook.com/1000392486681830/posts/4720890367965338.

13. An example of Matteo Salvini criticizing the PD is available in the following Facebook video published by the League: https://www.facebook.com/422703967772535/posts/284671033577527.

14. An example of a Facebook post published by Matteo Salvini recommending ‘a high-profile name’ is available at https://www.facebook.com/252306033154/posts/10159141771553155.

15. An example of a Facebook post published by Matteo Salvini recommending ‘a woman’ is available at https://www.facebook.com/252306033154/posts/10159148579213155.

16. An example of a Facebook post published by Giorgia Meloni disapproving of the final outcome is available at https://www.facebook.com/38919827644/posts/10159696002097645.

17. An example of a Facebook post published by FdI to promote presidentialism is available at https://www.facebook.com/355710427861591/posts/4735589283206995.

18. The Facebook post published by Giorgia Meloni to criticize Matteo Salvini’s proposal is available at https://www.facebook.com/38919827644/posts/10159695288847645.

19. An example of a Facebook post published by Carlo Calenda claiming that Mattarella’s re-election represented ‘the failure of politics’ is available at https://www.facebook.com/131887960826264/posts/914064962608556.

20. An example of Carlo Calenda criticizing Mattarella’s re-election is available in the following Facebook video https://www.facebook.com/131887960826264/posts/914439629237756.

21. The Facebook post published by Carlo Calenda supporting the candidacy of Marta Cartabia is available at https://www.facebook.com/131887960826264/posts/911924852822567.

22. The Facebook post published by Forza Italia on Berlusconi’s withdrawal is available at https://www.facebook.com/172265396249029/posts/2253513311457550.

23. The Facebook post published by Forza Italia on Berlusconi’s foresight is available at https://www.facebook.com/172265396249029/posts/2260367157438832.

24. The Facebook post published by the PD on Mattarella’s re-election is available at https://www.facebook.com/77034286895/posts/10159177721936896.

25. The Facebook post published by Enrico Letta on his pencil is available at https://www.facebook.com/10065481044/posts/10158749125596045.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luigi Rullo

Luigi Rullo is Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Science at the University of Naples Federico II. His research interests include presidential politics, the study of government and the judicialisation of politics in Italy and Europe. He is a member of the Editorial management board of the Rivista di Digital Politics.

Federica Nunziata

Federica Nunziata is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Science at the University of Naples Federico II. Her research interests include digital politics, the study of political parties and leadership, and consensus-building on digital platforms. She is a member of the Editorial management board of the Rivista di Digital Politics.