Abstract
While Italy has for long been a Europhile country, public opinion has recently become more critical of the EU, and populist parties have been able to consolidate their support by relying on Eurosceptical rhetoric. This chapter aims to shed light on the relationship between the Partito Democratico—the main centre-left party in Italy—and the European integration project and the EU institutions more generally. Our empirical analyses are presented in three main sections. (a) Relying on Eurobarometer data, the chapter describes the general background to the patterns emerging in Italian public opinion in recent years. (b) Content analysis of the party manifesto for the 2019 EP election offers a discussion of how the Partito Democratico addressed EU-related issues. (c) Human content analysis was carried out on Facebook messages published by the official party account during the EP election campaign. While the Italian public’s enthusiasm for Europe has been declining since the 1980s, as far as the Partito Democratico is concerned, findings on both the party manifesto and the controlled communication on Facebook confirm the party’s strong and consistent support for the EU integration project.
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Notes
- 1.
The figures derive from the survey data gathered by SWG from March to May 2019 for a total of 10,800 interviews. See the report, European elections 2019: Media, Voters, Results published by the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, available at https://interdispoc.unisi.it/en/journal/media-party-leaders-and-the-2019-eu-elections.
- 2.
Figures derived from the 4698 references to the five leaders drawn from the television news broadcasts Tg1, Tg2, Tg3, Tg5, TgLa7, and the newspapers, Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Il Giornale between 7 April and 24 May 2019. See: European elections 2019: Media, Voters, Results published by the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, available at https://interdispoc.unisi.it/en/journal/media-party-leaders-and-the-2019-eu-elections.
- 3.
See footnote 2.
- 4.
Figures derived from European elections 2019: see footnote 2.
- 5.
V-day, in Grillo’s words, is short for Vaffanculo Day (Fuck-off Day). In 2008 the V-Day took place on 25 April. The date was symbolic since it coincided with the Italian Liberation day, commemorating the end of Nazi occupation during World War II. In 2008, the thematic focus of the V-day was protest against the Italian media and information system, including promotion of a referendum calling for an end to public subsidies of newspapers.
- 6.
European elections 2019.
- 7.
Available at https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/.
- 8.
Available at https://www.pes.eu/en/manifesto2019/.
- 9.
‘ITEM—ITalian Election in the Media, 2018’, is a research project sponsored by the Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione Pubblica of the University of Turin.
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Bobba, G., Seddone, A. (2021). The Firm Europhilia of the Italian Democratic Party. In: Newell, J.L. (eds) Europe and the Left. Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54541-3_8
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