Since Matteo Salvini took over the leadership of the Northern League party (rebranded as the League before last year’s elections) in late 2013, the focus of his harsh political campaigns shifted from southern Italians— the so-called “Terroni”, or people of the countryside—to immigrants and refugees. This move allowed him to garner, in just a few years, massive electoral support. In particular, Salvini was able to build a narrative positioning not only the Italian middle class against the immigrants on the basis of safety and security, but also the lower classes, developing a strategy of a ‘war between the poor’, in which Italians struggling economically are pitted against immigrants in the field of social welfare.
Bruno, V. A., Italian Populists use Social Welfare to Ignite a “War Between the Poor", in Eviane Leidi, E. L. (ed.), Mainstreaming the Global Radical Right. CARR Yearbook 2019/2020, Ibidem verlag, Stoccarda 2020: 2020 173- 176 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/219527]
Italian Populists use Social Welfare to Ignite a “War Between the Poor"
Bruno, Valerio Alfonso
2020
Abstract
Since Matteo Salvini took over the leadership of the Northern League party (rebranded as the League before last year’s elections) in late 2013, the focus of his harsh political campaigns shifted from southern Italians— the so-called “Terroni”, or people of the countryside—to immigrants and refugees. This move allowed him to garner, in just a few years, massive electoral support. In particular, Salvini was able to build a narrative positioning not only the Italian middle class against the immigrants on the basis of safety and security, but also the lower classes, developing a strategy of a ‘war between the poor’, in which Italians struggling economically are pitted against immigrants in the field of social welfare.
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