The algorithmic populism of Matteo Salvini

Salvini and his Lega Nord have become influencial political actors, not only in Italy, but on a European scale. This article analyses the communication strategy of the Italian populist leader.

Salvini and The Lega Nord

The decline of political ideologies and of the identification of citizens' with parliamentary parties leads to the legitimacy of 'populism' as a means to express the frustrations of citizens in advanced democracies. 

In many ways, Populism is an inaccurate term, whose evaluation is linked to the historical-political context. In the United States it has a positive meaning, in Latin America it has had a militaristic value, but in Europa it has always had a nationalistic value. In our Countries populism mobilizes the nation as an identity force and becomes an enemy of pluralism. Once the people have achieved political inclusion, populism is an attempt to capture and unify them through the cunning use of certain words or supposed atavistic values.

In the democratic Italy the movement that more specifically incorporates these characteristics is the Lega Nord and its leader Matteo Salvini. The Lega Nord (in English: Northern League), whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (Northern League for the Independence of Padania), is a right-wing  party in Italy.

The Lega Nord advocated the transformation of Italy into a federal state, fiscal federalism and greater regional autonomy, especially for Northern regions. At times, the party has long proposed to create Padania (named after the Po Valley) as an independent nation, to secede from the Italian state. However, with Salvini the message had changed. A new slogan, “Italians first!”, had replaced the old secessionist battle cries. The party has embraced Italian nationalism and emphasized Euroscepticism, anti-elitism and opposition to immigration while forming an alliance with right-wing populist parties at the European level such as France's National Front, the Netherlands' Party for Freedom and the Freedom Party of Austria.

Furthermore, Salvini established a sister party in southern Italy named “Us with Salvini” and for the 2018 general election restyled the party's symbol and name, dropping the word "Nord" and introducing "Salvini Premier". After the elections, the party forms the current Italian government called the “Populist coalition” as an equal partner with the other big populist party, the Five Star Movement that has a similar populist appeal but a message that is less nationalistic in tone.

Even though these changes have been criticized, under Salvini the League has reached its highest popularity, both in the North and the rest of Italy. In northern regions the party still has a strong autonomist outlook, especially in Veneto where Venetian nationalism is stronger than ever.

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Why is Salvini a populist?

Within the field of populism studies, populism can mean very different things. But referring to the most recent literature it has become a euphemism for radical ideological positions and it is being used a synonym for racism, authoritarianism and nationalism. From this point of view, Salvini can be considered a populist.

In his book ‘What is populism?’, Jan-Werner Müller defines populism as ""‘a particular moralistic imagination of politics, a way of perceiving the political world that sets a morally pure and fully unified—but, I shall argue, ultimately fictional—people against elites who are deemed corrupt or in some other way morally inferior. (…) In addition to being anti-elitist, populists are always anti-pluralist: populists claim that they, and only they, represent the people.” (Muller, 2016: 19-20).

The Lega Nord seems to correspond to Muller's definition of populism. In fact, Salvini’s party, is not only anti-elitist, but also anti-democratic, anti-pluralist, and moralistic. In commons parlance, populism functions as an eufemism for a far right or even an extreme right position. Their ideological position is now normalized as 'the voice of the people'.

The label populism helps Salvini in giving authority to his claim to be the exclusive representant of the people. This communicative frame, where the leader speak the voice of the people is at the heart of populism (Maly, 2018). Indeed, there can be no populism without someone speaking in the name of the people as a whole. Not only journalists, other politicians and media target Salvini as populist, but also Salvini described himself as populist in several speeches he gave: “I am and I will always be a populist, because who listens to the people does his job and his duty”? or even, “When they call me populist, for me is a compliment, if by calling me populist or “Lepenist” they think to offend me they make me a favor instead.”

If we analyze “populism as a mediatized communicative and discursive relation” (Maly, 2018) and study the communicative process, we see that media and communication play a fundamental role for Salvini both in the process of becoming a populist and in the strategy of gaining consensus among population. So, changes in the media field have effects on how populism is constructed, and specifically, the development of new digital media have brought two main kind of revolution.

Firstly, Internet and other digital technologies has facilitated the rise of a “society of self-disclosure” (Thomson, 2005) in which it is common for political leaders and other individuals to share some aspects of their self or their personal life.

On the other hand, the specific technology of Internet and the possibility of collecting and elaborating a potentially endless number of data gave birth to the so-called “algorithmic populism”. It is a populism not only constructed in relation to journalists, politicians and academics, but also in relation with citizens, activists, computational agencies and algorithmic actors.

Algorithmic populism is a populism that is embedde in the internet. It uses social media speak to not only speak to the electorate in a direct way, it also  uses data collections to create specific targets and adapt its message basing on them. This is the kind of populism Salvini developed. He mobilizes an anti-elite discourse, he creates the need of the people and claims to represent it, he collaborates with different actors as journalists, politicians and academics and, first of all, he has a strong and complex digital media infrastructure through which distribute his messages.

Analyzing Salvini's populism

In fact, with an effective mix between online and offline communication, Salvini not only constructed an image of himself as the Minister of the Interior, but also of a de facto Prime Minister without renouncing the communicative strength and freedom typical of a party leader.
It is a fluid communication where sometimes the boundaries between the different roles are confused but also a communication that always puts "Salvini" in its core making him a true brand. Salvini is always “on message” (Silverstein, 2003). He has the capability of representing a 'consistent, cumulative, and consequential image (or brand) that a public person'  that appeals to his or her addressed audience (Silverstein, 2003).

In this case, the message that Salvini wants to communicate is the image of a strong leader and common man with good values. This message is spread both offline and online, but especially thorough internet and social media. The use of this communicational structure fits into a strong and precise strategy that is focused on gaining more and more consensus around his ideology in Italy.

Salvini uses social networks massively, generating a flow of information in real time, which allows people to follow his actions live. The different formats are used in a profitable way. He releases videos to announce events or talks directly with the social community. He posts interviews if he has to explain the contents of the position taken, or uploads photos to celebrate events and enhance his fans.He has been especially successful on Facebook, Italy’s most popular platform, with 34 million active users per month out of an eligible voting population of 46.6 million. Analyzing his Facebook page, we can highlight the main points that have become key of its success.

Salvini the captain, the beast and Facebook

Firstly, using a specially designed software, collectively called “the Beast”, he occupies all the thematic fields and determines the media agenda and the perception that Italians have of the core issues of the party. The software analyzes which posts and tweets get the best results, and what kind of people have interacted.

In this way the strategy can be modified through a propaganda that stimulates positive feelings as well as the negative emotions of anger and fear and the next posts will be structured accordingly to followers’ last reactions. Sometimes, as we can see form some posts, inciting openly to hatred and violence against his opponents.

The group NCT with 3 sub-units youtube.com

The second instrument is the appeal to the community. Salvini boasts a strong, motivated and compact community of followers, especially digital followers, with its 3.3 million likes on Facebook. Among them Salvini is called “the Captain”, indeed, he claims to be the "Captain" to whom people can rely. Today, this community is competitive advantage, in the era of general de-mobilization of political participation. Especially if it is a community that can be activated both online and offline, as evidenced by the fact that Salvini took part in about 250 initiatives over the last five months from North to South. Salvini knows that he can count on his community as a source of legitimization and validation of his leadership, also in the relationship with the media.

The third key is polarization. Precisely because we live in times in which fewer people take part actively in politic life, we must identify enemies, tangible or symbolic, with which to establish an oppositional dynamic. That is the reason why Salvini’s communication is a constant oppositional dynamic that polarizes the confrontation and identifies antagonists.

The fourth instrument is the "common sense revolution" an important piece of its communicative positioning. In his rhetoric the vote for the League is framed as a vote of normality, "it is right to bring back a bit of normality in Italy". The imaginary of "normality" and the "tranquility" threatened by external threats and internal deviant behavior, recalls the Italy that was there before. The slogans taps into the nostalgia of the "make our country great again" as crystallized in Donald Trump's electoral slogan. The "common sense", furthermore, is a generic concept that allows to say racist and fascist things with the excuse that they seem sensible because they are shared: because they are 'the voice of the people'.

But beyond the common sense there is the proclamation of love: "Here there is love, there is no envy, there is no jealousy". Who is against the League is a hater, a “frustrated leftist, which will exhaust the stocks of Maalox in pharmacy.”

Salvini as the typical Italian Family man

The last key is the highly informal communication style: his communication of identity. In his posts Salvini appears as a common man, a man of the people, a man with traditional Italian values as love, friendship, good food, religion and family. This creates a direct relationship with people and distinguishes Salvini from the unpopular caste of politicians.Salvini invites people into his world, posting pictures of his private (and normal) daily life.

So, he floods the Web with family postcards to tell about his last meal, his day at the beach with his fiancée, or the football exploits of his young son. All embellished with many photos of him in bermuda or swimsuit.

The language is colorful and characterized by the presence of a lot of informal details such as the double question mark, and the tone is perpetually passive-aggressive. Ferocious words are always accompanied by "and I say this with a smile, with a hug". Attacks to journalists and opponents end with "I wish you a long human and professional life". Furthermore, supporters are always called not only friends, but brothers and sisters, dads and mums.

Salvini’s common man image is also underlined by his clothing.  He does not dress as a political leader and does not choose clothing to communicate his political and social position, but he chooses comfortable clothes that every common man would wear. The peak is when in manifestations or gatherings he wears the t-shirt with the slogan of that particular event creating a connection between the demonstrating citizen and himself. The slogans on these t-shirts explicitly  stress the political dimension of this seemingly informal, non-political communication of identity.

Stop to Euro www.openbiblemessage.org

Another interesting feature is the presence of real call to action at the end of most of the posts.The user who follows the Salvini page is directly involved and invited to express their opinion, becoming an integral part of the communication and discussion process on issues related to the daily life of citizens (security in the suburbs, problems regarding family conflicts, comments on the labor market). These messages hope to spark interaction, and thus algorithmic activism in order to push messages into virality.

Salvini's algorithmic populism

One of the most revolutionary characteristics of social media is to allow everyone to share and spread his ideas, whatever they are, rational or irrational, fair or unfair, true or wrong. Salvini came to power spreading immigrant panic, anger and anti-pluralistic ideas, creating a community based on them. A community emotionally sensitive exulting and getting angry quickly, that doesn’t think twice before type a comment usually without thinking about consequences.

And Salvini knows he can count on it. Like, for example, in the Facebook video from his interior ministry office when he was placed under investigation for kidnapping after refusing to allow migrants to disembark from an Italian coast guard ship.

This is one of the many cases in which where other Italian politicians might squirm with embarrassment, Salvini acted like the investigation was a medal of honor and his audience happily cheered. “It is you who asked this minister to control the borders, to control the ports, to limit arrivals, to limit the departure of illegal migrants,” he told his viewers. Every criticism, is repackaged as evidence that he is truly fighting for the people, that he dares to take a stance. It is here that we see the succes of his populist rethoric.   

References

John B Thompson (2015). The new visibility. University of Toronto

Michael Silverstein (2003). Talking politics. The substance of style from ABE to “W”. Prickly Paradigm Press.

Ico Maly (2018). Populism as a mediatized communicative relation: the birth of algorithmic populism. Tilburg University.

Anton Jager (2018). The myth of “populism”. Cambridge.academia.edu

Nadia Urbinati (2015). Il populismo di Salvini. Repubblica.it.

Steve Scherer (2018). Chestnuts, swagger and good grammar: how Italy's 'Captain' builds his brand. Reuters.

Christian Raimo (2018). Come smontare la retorica di Matteo Salvini. Internazionale.

Franciscu Sedda, Paolo Demuru (2018). Da cosa si riconosce il populismo. Ipotesi semipolitiche. Epublication Université de Limoges.