ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the response of populist radical right parties to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. From the theoretical point of view, we maintain that populists profit from a crisis when they can frame it as a failure of representation. In the case of a health crisis, it is harder for populist actors to frame it as a crisis of representation since it calls for competence instead of representation. While the League (La Lega) and Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) have similar characteristics, the erratic strategy of the former allowed the latter to successfully depict the whole political establishment as morally corrupt and to become the largest party in the system.
