Abstract

The 2022 elections saw the all-time low turnout in the history of the Italian Republic. Through an analysis of original post-electoral data by LaPolis, we investigate the premises of the election day, namely the response to the electoral campaign from the point of view of the Italian electorate. Comparatively to the previous national elections (2013 and 2018), in 2022 fewer Italians declared to have followed the campaign. Furthermore, the electorate responded negatively to political actors’ negative campaigning, characterized by a strategy of «incivility». The study also examines the correlation between these responses and factors such as media consumption, political orientation, and voting for a specific party. In the new historical phase of the public debate, the Italian electorate does not recognize the ability of the electoral campaign to inform and involve. The disintermediation of political communication does not bring citizens closer to politics. Rather, the opposite seems to be happening