Giorgia Meloni’s Online Reputation After The Elections [CASE STUDY]

The results of the Italian elections saw the united center-right as the undisputed force in the country.

Within the coalition, Giorgia Meloni‘s party gains the majority of the preferences, collecting many of the votes that in 2018 went to her comrades on the list.

Following the results obtained and with the prospect that she could be the first woman Italian Prime Minister, the press and the web keep the spotlight on the leader of the Brothers of Italy.

ReputationUP analyzed Giorgia Meloni‘s online reputation after the elections.

The dates selected for the study are those between 25th and 30th of September.

Who is Giorgia Meloni?

Giorgia Meloni‘s page shows her entire political trajectory.

She is a professional and political journalist; she was born in Rome in January 1977 and has been involved in politics since she was 15.

Her journey began in the ranks of the National Alliance, the party with which she entered Parliament in 2006 and represented as Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies until 2008.

In the elections of that year, she appeared on the list of the People of Freedoms and until November 2011 she held the post of Minister of Youth.

This earns her the distinction of the youngest minister in the history of the Republic and constitutes a great leap forward for her personal reputation.

In December 2012, she founded, together with Guido Crosetto and Ignazio La Russa, “Brothers of Italy – National Center Right.”

As reported on the website of the Chamber of Deputies, in 2018, her election with the Brothers of Italy was reconfirmed.

For the political elections in September, she presented a 15-point electoral program that allows you to be the first elected party.

The results of the elections

In the first hours following the polls closing, the results decreed the right-wing coalition as the winner of the elections.

The data, confirmed during the morning of 26th September, consolidate the numbers.

As reported on the Ministry of the Interior page dedicated to the elections, Giorgia Meloni‘s party collected 7,302,517 votes in the Chamber and 7,167,136 in the Senate.

With 26% of the votes, Brothers of Italy established itself as the first party in the center-right coalition and at the national level.

This result could consecrate her as the first woman Prime Minister, making her join the group of G7 leaders.

The first party of the left coalition, the Democratic Party, stops at 5,356,180 votes (in the House), with a percentage of 19%.

The 5-star movement follows, with 15% of the votes.

On her Twitter profile, Giorgia Meloni celebrates her victory by promising commitment not to betray the trust shown by the voters.

The reaction of the foreign press to Giorgia Meloni’s victory

The change of Government with the consequent turn to the right has certainly not left the foreign press indifferent.

The election of Giorgia Meloni has provoked mixed reactions that affect her web reputation.

Most of the newspapers headline the victory of the far right, noting that this is a clear change compared to recent years.

The reaction of CNN was very hard, announcing the victory of Giorgia Meloni as the most right result after Mussolini.

On the other hand, the Guardian retorts with a different point of view, bringing the leader of the Brothers of Italy closer to Trump than to Mussolini.

Thus reads the article in the British newspaper.

“Meloni is an astute political leader and able to play the long game. […] She bided her time and painstakingly built its following over the years. […] She has now won that power, the first woman to do so in a painfully patriarchal society. It is unlikely she has any wish to squander such an achievement on a trashy remake of fascist corruption a hundred years too late. Her goal is to grow the kernel of a new Italian and European politics.”

The Reuters news agency assimilates the figure of Giorgia Meloni to that of Margaret Thatcher, considering that she is preparing to become the first woman Prime Minister.

The official speech of Giorgia Meloni

Listening to the official speech released by Giorgia Meloni immediately after the results that gave her victory, some of the themes that characterized her political campaign emerged.

Likewise, the tone did not hide the emotion but was also very calm and firm.

The moment was more than anything else an opportunity to point out the low blows of the opponents and a nod to abstention, but also to thank the voters and staff.

Her carefully constructed digital image demonstrates the importance of Online Reputation Management in an election campaign.

The declared goal was to want to create an “unassailable” government, both nationally and internationally: the management of political reputation will be fundamental.

Who won online

This was the most social election campaign ever; only the launch into the metaverse is missing.

Both traditional means of communication and social networks have been exploited to the maximum by all the candidates.

The most quoted in the press was the former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (5-star movement), with 15,000 articles dedicated to him.

The novelty was the use of TikTok, used to reach the very young voters, who make up the largest slice of users.

Here, the first for the number of likes is Matteo Salvini (Lega – Salvini Premier), 8.2 million.

Silvio Berlusconi, however, with his viral videos, was the protagonist of the Chinese social network, dodging the reputational risk.

In a very short time, he reached 672,500 followers and 4.1 million likes.

In general, the platform has increased interest in political issues.

The hashtag #elezionipolitiche2022 reached 37.2 million views, while #elezionipolitiche reached 81 million.

On Twitter, the podium of politicians with the most interactions is made up of Carlo Calenda (Action), Enrico Letta (PD), and Giorgia Meloni (Brothers of Italy).

According to this platform‘s policies, it is impossible to sponsor political content.

This was done on Instagram and Facebook, where the highest expenditure was faced by Giorgia Meloni‘s party.

To make the process more transparent, Meta has created the Meta Ad Library Report, which can be consulted to monitor users’ ADS spending.

According to the report, from 29th August to 27th September, the Brothers of Italy spent 129.433 euros, followed by +Europa, by Emma Bonino, at the cost of 93.966 euros.

However, the leader of social media remains Matteo Salvini, who has the most significant number of followers: 9.3 million.

The analysis

For Giorgia Meloni‘s reputational monitoring, the ReputationUP analysis focused on the dates between 25th and 30th September.

The time frame refers to the week following the elections, starting from the day of the vote.

The parameters taken into consideration are the following:

• Results;
• Engagement;
• Sentiment;
• Trend.

To carry out reputation monitoring, ReputationUP uses patented software, the RepUP Monitoring Tool.

This tool analyzes in real-time everything that is said online, combining Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.

The results

The analysis of the results considers all the interactions in a given time.

These interactions include mentions, likes, or comments.

In one week, Giorgia Meloni generated 99.6 thousand results online.

For the reputational analysis, the day of 26th September is the most significant.

Furthermore, the results grew by + 146% compared to the previous period.

In the graph below, the engagement of the results is divided by social network.

The most consistent data correspond to “Facebook Like“.

Followed by “Comments” always on Facebook and “Twitter Like“.

The post with the photo of the ticket written by the daughter to compliment the victory reaches 283 thousand likes and 22 thousand comments.

The same photo on Instagram reached almost 176 thousand likes and over 14 thousand comments.

On Twitter, however, the post in which Giorgia Meloni announces her victory collected 85,400 likes and over 15,000 retweets.

Meanwhile, the tweet that reports a fragment of the first press conference called after the results has 203.9 thousand views and almost 14 thousand likes.

Indeed, with her new role in national politics, Giorgia Meloni will have to consider how to protect her online reputation.

Sentiment

Sentiment calculates the percentage of positive or negative sentiment generated by users on social networks.

The ReputationUP Study Center calculated the net sentiment generated by Giorgia Meloni on the Internet in line with her political reputation.

This is the net percentage, measured on a scale of -100 to 100.

The result is visible in the following graph.

Giorgia Meloni has a positive sentiment of 10.7% and a negative one of 33.1%.

These figures generate a net sentiment of 51.2%, 21.8% more than in the previous period.

The results are influenced by the typical clashes of the election campaign, especially on social networks.

Trend

To study the digital reputation of the leader of Brothers of Italy, our patented software analyzes the trending topics most closely linked to Giorgia Meloni.

All are connected to the election campaign and its political opponents:

• Vote;
• President;
• Left;
• Right;
• Matteo;
• Letta;
• Politics;
• Elections;
• Party.

In the case of hashtags, those used by everyone during the election campaign, such as #ElzioniPolitiche2022, have great visibility.

The name of her party, #FDI and that of her comrades in the coalition, #Berlusconi and #Lega, stand out.

In the meantime, other hashtags are starting to emerge that spotlight the hot topics the Government will have to confront.

Emotions

The RepUP Monitoring Tool also monitors the emotions generated by Giorgia Meloni.

Before analyzing the data, it must be said that the very short election campaign was conducted with very strong and aggressive tones.

On the 41 thousand results analyzed, these are the data:

• Anger: 50.5%;
• Fear: 23.3%;
• Sadness: 15.9%;
• Joy: 10%.

The prevailing emotion is undoubtedly anger, not necessarily addressed to the leader of the Brothers of Italy but also in defense of her.

However, the most significant growth compared to the previous period is recorded for fear: + 200%.

Conclusions

The ReputationUP Study Center, one of the leading online reputation management companies, analyzed Giorgia Meloni‘s online image.

These are the conclusions you can draw from the analysis:

• In the analyzed week, Giorgia Meloni generated 99.6 thousand results online;
• The most consistent data refer to Facebook, likes, and comments;
• Giorgia Meloni has a positive sentiment of 10.7% and a negative one of 33.1%; the net sentiment is 51.2%;
• The most present emotion is anger, which occupies 50.5% of the results;
• The most relevant topics refer to the themes of the election campaign and its political rivals.

Through the monitoring software RepUP Monitoring Tool, you can observe the essential data on reputation and sentiment online.

This analysis shows that Giorgia Meloni is gaining more and more importance online.