Riflessioni su pandemia e comunicazione politica: l’interesse online per leader e partiti

Has the pandemic reversed trends already taking place in contemporary politics or has it reinforced ongoing political phenomena? The serious health risk posed by the spread of Covid-19 has in fact legitimised dynamics that more or less silently had long been spreading, including the personalisation of politics, the (alleged) disintermediation of communication, different populist styles, the danger of authoritarian drifts. The challenges to democracy identified by the political literature, as the pandemic spreads, are enriched by new elements. Trust in national institutions, which has been years marked by a negative trend, in countertendency has increased during the peak of the epidemic. new fears lead to support for national institutions and those who govern them. Only to decline again when the lockdown ended. The chapter, starting with the Italian situation, reflects on the possible effects of the health crisis on the political system, analysing the communication aspects of these transformations. It presents, finally an exploratory of the trends of interest for the main political leaders from the 2018 elections to September 2020 by analysing Google searches.