Transformation of the discourse of the Lega party during the years of M. Salvini's leadership

The present paper focuses on the changes observed in the discourse of the Italian right-wing populist party Lega from 2013 to the present. During this period, the party's rating experienced phases of explosive growth, sustained decline, and prolonged stagnation. The peak of popularity was reached in 2019 when M. Salvini held the position of one of the two deputy prime ministers in the government of G. Conte, and the party achieved an unequivocal victory in the European Parliament elections with over 34% of the vote. From 2019 to 2024 the Lega played a key role in the far-right group of the European Parliament "Identity and Democracy". The main task was the deconstruction of the party's ideological drift during the leadership of M. Salvini, and an additional task was to establish the reasons that required a change in the discursive strategy and style of political communication. The study is based on the results of qualitative analysis of the party's program documents and public speeches of its leaders, as well as electoral statistics. For the first time, the transformation that the discourse of the Lega underwent after joining the center-right Italian government, which came to power in the fall of 2022, is described. It seems that the reasons for these changes should be sought in the loss of status as an opposition party, the change in world environment, and competition from partners in the governing coalition. It is noted that the attempt to revive the far-right populist discourse, with which the Lega achieved maximum success in 2019, has not been able to turn around the crisis situation in which the party has remained for the last few years. The results obtained may find further application in studies of the phenomenon of right-wing populism and political expertise.

Italy, right-wing populism, far-right parties, League, Northern League, Matteo Salvini, political discourse, political communication, sovereignism, nativism