The representations of Italian populisms on Facebook (2017-2019). The language of Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini from a psychosocial analytical perspective

The study comparatively explores the communi- cation on Facebook of Matteo Salvini, a right- wing xenophobic populist, and Luigi Di Maio, an eclectic populist more center-left oriented. Communication was monitored during the 2018 National and 2019 European elections. We stud- ied the involvement and anger reactions of the followers, highlighting higher levels in Salvini’s followers than those of Di Maio. We then com- bined automatic textual analyses with qualitative content analyses. The results underlined different forms of populism with the communication styles of the two leaders that strategically use pronomi- nal forms and their categorical amplitude to con- solidate the identitarian unity of their people.