Populism in power? The 2016 Administrative Elections in Rome

2016 City Elections in Rome have been crucial for many reasons. In a context where political actors’ communication strategies are constantly evolving, every new occasion to apply them to an electoral campaign represents an important contribution to the construction of that permanent campaigning Blumenthal (1980) theorised in the early Eighties. Italian local elections have always been important chances to “test” the political forces’ “strength” both at local and national level. The Italian political scenario, coming from 2013 General Elections, is highly precarious, especially for what concerns the importance of the MoVimento 5 Stelle. All of these reasons have been magnified by the fact that the leadership of the Italian Capital was at stake, and among the incumbents there were many representatives of Italian national politics.