Public opinion 26 June 2018 Against Euroscepticism: practice, don’t preach the EU By Alessandro Pellegata and Francesco Visconti This article elaborates the multidimensional concept of “EU-politanism”, which refers to respondent’s connections with citizens of other countries and their familiarity with the EU context. In recent Italian elections, voters with EU-politan experiences expressed less extreme positions on the EU and immigration.
Public opinion 18 May 2018 The winners and losers of globalisation in the Italian elections By Alessandro Pellegata and Francesco Visconti The recent Italian elections provide evidence of a political conflict between the winners and losers of globalisation. The latter tend to be more hostile to the EU and the Euro, more chauvinist and more likely to vote for Eurosceptic parties.
Public opinion 16 April 2018 Understanding the Italian vote: a matter of policy agendas By Alessandro Pellegata and Francesco Visconti Voter’s agendas suggest unemployment remains the most pressing problem, while immigration is becoming more important compared to previous elections. The polarisation of the issue of immigration played a central role in this year’s electoral campaign and is reflected in the public’s attitude towards the EU.
Social media 13 March 2018 How Italy’s Five-Star Movement and the League Won the Twitter Campaign By Giovanni Pagano, Francesca Arcostanzo and Martina Zaghi We have followed 1,579 candidates and tracked their Twitter conversations in the two weeks before the Italian parliamentary elections. Also, we collected 400,000 citizens’ retweets and replies to candidates’ tweets.
Social media 2 March 2018 Delocalisation in the EU: the Embraco case on Twitter By Martina Zaghi, Giovanni Pagano and Francesca Arcostanzo EuVisions collected all conversations about the Embraco case that took place in the Italian Twitter-sphere between February 10 to 25, for a total amount of 50,984 tweets sent by 14,251 users. Many negative opinions were specifically addressed to the EU institutions and actors.
Political visions 26 February 2018 No, Germany and Italy do not share the same EU vision By Alexander Damiano Ricci A couple of weeks ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, met on the occasion of a bilateral meeting, in Berlin. The two leaders said that they share the “same vision concerning the future of Europe”. Coupling the joint statement of Gentiloni and Merkel with the French-German entente sieged by the GroKo deal, one could argue that there exists an ideal match between the reformist visions of the centre-left and centre-right governing parties in France, Germany and Italy.
Social media 21 February 2018 Italian elections 2018: the Macerata attacks and the issue of immigration. A Twitter study By Giovanni Pagano, Francesca Arcostanzo and Martina Zaghi As the electoral campaign intensifies, political heat surrounding immigration remains high. Whatever the outcome of 4 March election will be, the issue of immigration is here to stay.
Social media 29 January 2018 Italian elections 2018: the online debate on “Euro-exit” By Giovanni Pagano The debate about Italy and the euro is a long-standing one on Twitter. However, the recent events seem to have spiced up the discussion, bringing the topic in the arena of the electoral campaign.
Public opinion 15 December 2017 Once we were friends. EU support and reciprocal views between Germany and Italy By Alessandro Pellegata and Francesco Olmastroni The Eurozone crisis and austerity measures are damaging not only public support for the EU but also the stock of mutual trust and respect among European citizens.
Policy focus 25 January 2016 Renzi vs Juncker: A social media analysis By Giovanni Pagano, Alexander Damiano Ricci and Pier Domenico Tortola The recent war of words between Matteo Renzi and Jean-Claude Juncker, triggered by the latter’s critical remarks towards Italy is only the latest, and certainly one of the most visible episodes in what some have called a new fault line in European politics.