ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how populist regionalist discourse survived a period of political inactivity in the 1960s and 1970s. Building on the historical context outlined in, the following pages account for this 20-year gap between the decline of the first and the emergence of the second wave of populist regionalism in northern Italy. These years of hiatus will be examined as a period of abeyance which will allow for a clearer understanding of not only the decline of certain populist movements, but also how populist discourse is transmitted between cycles of mobilisation or waves of activism. Focusing on three specific repertoires, this chapter will, therefore, act as a point of departure for the more in-depth study of the creation and reproduction of repertoires relating to regionalism in populism and nativism in chapter 5, and finally, Salvini's latest iteration of populist nationalism in chapter 6.
