Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Renzi discover TikTok during the election campaign in Italy

“During this election campaign, I was surprised not to see a race towards the most popular and potential-rich platform that is TikTok”, wrote, on August 27, on her blog, Valentina Tonutti, specialist in digital strategy and political communication. Everything changed four days later. Thursday 1er September, Silvio Berlusconi (Forza Italia, right), Matteo Renzi (Italia Viva, centre) and the Democratic Party (PD – centre-left) landed simultaneously on the application used by 6 million young Italians.

In the campaign for the general elections of September 25, characterized by its brevity, most of the main candidates have taken up the challenge of saturating social networks, with the ambition of mobilizing young people. It was first Silvio Berlusconi, 85, who released his first video. Beginning with a thunderous “Ciao ragazzi! » (“hello young people!”), the Cavaliere, more tanned than ever, stands static behind his desk, explaining that he is “a bit envious” of these young people who are fond of the TikTok application, of which 60% of users are under 30 years old.

4 million views in one day

“We will talk about your future and tell you how we want to make Italy a country that can offer you new opportunities and the possibility of realizing your dreams”promises the founder of Forza Italia in a somewhat laborious style, forcing gestures and smiles. The second Berlusconian TikTok video from 1er September was a funny story about Putin, Biden, the Pope and himself on a plane…

“A somewhat anachronistic style, reminiscent of the 1990s TV he fashioned”, analyzes Giovanni Boccia Artieri, media sociologist at Carlo Bo University in Urbino. The sequence did not fail to provoke sarcasm and comments. But this arrival on the platform was successful with more than 4 million views and 200,000 subscribers to the new account in less than a day.

“The invasion of youth networks by a crowd of bumbling party leaders, pretending to talk as if they were 15 years old, is producing embarrassing effects”, Massimo Gramellini of “Corriere della Sera”

At Matteo Renzi, the style is more direct: “Some know me for having been soccer referee or scoutmaster »launched the former President of the Council of Ministers (2014-2016) and former Mayor of Florence in his first video. “But above all, I am someone who believes in politics. “The invasion of youth social networks by a mob of bumbling party leaders pretending to talk as if they were 15 is producing embarrassing effects”notes, acerbic, the editorialist Massimo Gramellini, Friday, September 2, in the daily Corriere della Sera.

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