Abstract

The election campaign for the 2022 Italian general elections was the most social ever. The determination to intercept the new voter – member of Z generation – made the political leaders of the main parties approach the social universe without actually fully knowing its operating rules. However, despite the fact that politicians have for months inhabited the same «places», used the same hashtags, and participated in the same challenges, the young and very young continue to perceive their language as distant from that typical of Z generation. This is confirmed by a survey conducted by Freeda on a sample of voters under-34: in 80% of cases, voters do not feel represented either by the content published through social media by political leaders or by the election programs proposed by parties. The decision on the part of Italian politics to be present on the main social media platforms constitutes the pursuit of a transformation that was already under way – and is, still today, in continuous evolution – towards the concept of «pop politics», whereby political discourse is no lonmger seen as being of a higher level, but rather uses the process of disintermediation as a solid basis from which to branch out into the dimension of intimate politics. The electoral race no longer develops within well-defined and precise temporal boundaries but becomes a «permanent campaign». Starting from these theoretical assumptions, the aim of this paper is to examine the main strategies introduced in the social sphere by Italian political leaders during the 2022 elections and intercept the effects they had on Z generation to understand how much they really affected the voting choices of post millennials. By reviewing the most popular trends and content published during the election campaign – with an eye always on televised political propaganda, which is the indispensable starting point for examining the new languages of contemporary politics – we will come to draw a broad and complete picture of the contemporary social-political universe