Whilst the Lega Nord has traditionally been defined as a regionalist populist party, since Matteo Salvini became its leader in 2013 it has undergone a process of profound ideological transformation. ...This article assesses this momentous change and the impact it could have on the future of the Lega, drawing on a content analysis of Salvini's and the party's Facebook posts, as well as interviews with regional leaders. It argues that, under Salvini's personal style of leadership: (a) regionalism has been replaced by an empty form of nativist nationalism, which fails to address socio-economic issues related to the North-South divide; (b) populism remains central to the party's strategic communication, but the EU has taken Rome's place as the people's 'enemy'; (c) this ideological shift has paid-off at the 2018 general election, but is underpinned by latent fractures between the leader and regional representatives which could have profound implications in the future.
Objective: Describe how people with lower limb spasticity present for treatment in routine clinical practice.
Methods: Prospective, observational study (Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT04050527) of ambulatory ...adult patients (≥ 18 years) with unilateral lower limb spasticity (able to take ≥ 5 steps with or without assistance) presenting for routine spasticity management, including treatment with abobotulinumtoxinA.
Results: The study population included 430 adults with lower limb spasticity. Despite their relatively young age (mean ± standard deviation 53.7 ± 13.9 years), only 20% of patients were employed. Most patients had an acquired brain injury due to cerebrovascular disease; 84.1% reported having concomitant upper limb spasticity. Using the Leg Activity Measure, most patients reported no or only mild difficulties in performing hygiene/positioning tasks, while 80.7% had at least mild difficulty with indoor ambulation and 90.5% had at least mild difficulty with walking outdoors. Sensory, communication and/or cognitive impairments were also common. At the first treatment cycle, 50.7% of patients set active function primary goals, including locomotion transferring or standing.
Conclusion: These observations highlight the complexity of presentation that must be considered when setting treatment goals for lower limb spasticity and emphasize the types of impairment and activity (functional) limitations that treating teams may expect to encounter in their patients and should cover in their initial and follow-up assessments.
Il presente lavoro offre una nuova edizione del trattato di alleanza tra Atene e Caristo del 357 a.C. che comprende una proposta di integrazione delle linee 2-3 e 4-6 e una rilettura del contesto ...storico in cui l’iscrizione si inserisce. Attraverso un confronto del contenuto dell’iscrizione con la documentazione letteraria (Eschine, Demostene e Diodoro), il contributo esamina la storia della città euboica e delle sue relazioni con Atene negli anni ’70 e ’50 del quarto secolo a.C. e fissa un intervallo cronologico circa la data dell’ingresso di Caristo nella Seconda lega ateniese.
This article asks how policy responses to migration in Italy have been shaped both by issue salience and by changing configurations on the centre right of Italian party politics both prior to and ...following the 2015 'migration crisis'. We show that, first, the increased politicisation of 'irregular' arrivals into Italy after 2015 changed migration from a relatively 'quiet' policy issue to one of 'loud' politics meaning that it was highly salient to the public. This salience significantly advantaged the Lega, who by this point had already transformed into an archetypal, European populist radical right party, but could now campaign successfully nationally and dominate the nominal 'centre-right' coalition. Second, the imposition when in government between June 2018 and September 2019 by the Lega of policies for migrants and asylum-seekers that focussed solely on prevention and removal and ended what remained of prior policy drift. We show that both trends conform to theoretical expectations regarding the relative power of interest groups and public opinion over public policy that are contingent on public issue salience, which we show to be the most plausible determinant of variation in migration policy, rather than public attitudes or party positions, during the period.
L’analyse des caractéristiques de Don Zulì, le personnage principal de la nouvelle de Pirandello La lega disciolta, montre que c’est l’environnement dans lequel il vit qui peut être défini comme ...mafieux plus que lui.
The 2018 Italian general elections were a crucial test to assess the resilience of mainstream parties vis-à-vis the challenge provided by populist forces and the stabilisation of the tripolar party ...system emerged in 2013. The article analyses the outcome of the election, whose most remarkable result was the unprecedented success of two populist parties, the M5S and the Lega, by focusing on key aspects such as the new electoral system, the coalition-building process, the electoral campaign, the evolution of the Italian party system, and the analysis of vote shifts between parties.
Coalition agreements in the Italian Second Republic have traditionally been pre-electoral, often long, comprehensive but vague documents serving also as electoral manifestos for centre-right or ...centre-left coalitions. In this article, we analyse the 2018 post-electoral coalition agreement between the Movimento Cinque Stelle and Lega in comparative perspective, contrasting this agreement with former coalition programmes enforced since the mid-1990s in Italy and the pre-election manifestos published by these two political parties. The analysis reported here allows us to conclude that the first post-electoral coalition agreement in Italy is shorter than most centre-left documents, as vague as previous agreements, and constitutes a compromise committing the Lega to less right-wing positions, the ‘grillini’ to less progressive stances, and both political forces to tone down their Euroscepticism. The extent to which these commitments are solid and longstanding is unknown.
In recent years, political polarization saw a significant rise in many political systems. This revamped a scientific debate sparked decades ago, with different schools of thought debating on ...dynamics, factors, and causes of polarization itself. By looking at political elites’ polarizing strategy—one of the factors on which various theories seem to converge—this article tackles the question concerning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of political communication. More specifically, we look at the case of a highly polarizing leader in Italy—Matteo Salvini, leader of Lega—in two campaigns held in 2020 before and after the first wave of the pandemic. By analyzing his messages on Facebook and Twitter, we build on the literature on the causes of affective polarization to study Salvini's use of partisan identity and divisive issues, also considering other crucial elements, such as the attacks against others, and followers’ engagement. The results highlight some changes between the two phases, but also a strong continuity in the polarizing strategy of Salvini's political communication.
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