Italian Populist Leaders and Their Followers on Facebook (2019–2022): Representational Fields and Empirical Evidence from a Psycho-Social Linguistic Perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine the written communication on Facebook of three Italian populist leaders of different political orientations—Giorgia Meloni (FdI, radical right), Matteo Salvini (League, center-right), and Giuseppe Conte (M5S, transversal, recently more center-left oriented)—and their followers from 2019 to 2022. Social representation theory was used to examine how language served as a tool for asserting power relations and reinforcing group identities. To this end, textual data analysis was conducted on corpora of posts and comments, followed by the application of multiple correspondence analysis to uncover latent factors of meaning for qualitative examination. The results revealed how leaders strategically used language to address the interests of their specific groups and reinforce their identities. The leaders’ discourses focused primarily on national identity, social ties, and issues consistent with their political ideologies. They also placed considerable emphasis on government actions and policies, particularly those related to employment, business support, and labor issues. In addition, colloquial expressions and informal language were often used to enhance their accessible communication style. In particular, Giorgia Meloni used “low” language, focusing on ingroup/outgroup dynamics and emphasizing sovereignty, patriotism, and Islamophobia. In contrast, Salvini shifted to a more positive emotional register, moving away from security and xenophobic populism. Conte, on the other hand, emphasized the institutional dimension and used a less “low” register in his language, exploiting the former role as prime minister to effectively assert his authority. Analysis of the comments provided valuable insights into the instrumental use of language, with followers mirroring the linguistic markers and emotional register of their leaders. This research underscores the importance of social media in enabling direct and personalized communication between leaders and their followers. The observed disintermediation tendencies reflect the populist strategy of establishing a direct connection with their base. In conclusion, this study demonstrated how language played a crucial role in the communication strategies of Italian populist leaders and their followers, shaping public perceptions and reinforcing group identities. The insights gained from this research offer a deeper understanding of the dynamics of political discourse in the context of social representation theory.