Abstract

In Italy, today, hate speech and its contrast is a major problem in public debate even if it is not a new issue. Hate speech is not just a legal issue, but above all is a cultural question and a rhetorical device for public discourses. For this reason it is not easy to recognize and to counteract. Starting from this premise, a research study was carried out with the specific aim to verify the use of hate speech within the institutional discourse. The aim of this research is to focus on institutional workplaces, which are not usually in the spotlight of the media, in order to determine whether, to what extent, which topics and against whom, the language of hatred is more deeply rooted. Some parliamentary debates on issues of potentially high hate speech were selected and analyzed in full discussions. The research hypotheses were essentially three. The first was to verify if internal institutional discourse was immune to offenses. The second was to determine that offensive languages was part of a particular political culture. The third hypothesis was to confirm targets of hate speech. Unfortunately, results show that hate speech and offensive language are deeply rooted also in institutional relationships.