Several Italian politicians opened accounts with TikTok, the fastest growing social network in the world, to try to leverage its popularity in view of the September 25th parliamentary elections, when the country will renew the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and will gain a new prime minister.
The list of newcomers to TikTok includes names that are more accustomed to the internet, such as former centrist prime minister Matteo Renzi, aged 47, to the very veteran former conservative prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, 85.
“Hi, young people! Here I am! I welcome you to my official TikTok channel”, said Berlusconi, candidate for the Senate, in his first post on the platform, this Thursday (1st). The former prime minister's account has less than 200 followers, but the debut video has already been viewed more than 3,2 million times.
“On this platform, you young people are present in more than 5 million, and 60% of you are under 30. I feel a little envious, but I also offer many congratulations,” added Berlusconi, who governed Italy from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011.
Senator Renzi, who is seeking reelection and was prime minister between 2014 and 2016, preferred a more relaxed approach, with a video in which he even jokes about his gaffes in English. “'And what are you even doing on TikTok?' The election campaign makes us all try to find new alternative channels to dialogue and debate”, says the former prime minister in his first video, also broadcast this Thursday.
“For many of you, I am an expert in 'first reaction shock' or 'shish' [terms used by Renzi in speeches in English and which became a meme on the web], others know me as the youngest former prime minister in republican history, but above all as former mayor of the most beautiful city in the world, Florence. But what is fundamental is that I am above all a politician, someone who believes in politics,” he adds.
Despite the relaxed tone, the video only achieved a tenth of the views of Berlusconi's first post (359,8 thousand followers). Another newcomer to TikTok is the Democratic Party (PD), the main center-left force in Italy and which dedicated its first video to civil rights.
However, the leader of the party, also former prime minister Enrico Letta (2013-2014), known for his serious and uncharismatic profile, has not yet joined the social network.
The most popular Italian politician on TikTok is ultra-right senator Matteo Salvini, with 542 followers, just a third of his nearly 1,5 million Twitter followers.
This is due to the fact that, until recently, Italy's political class ignored the Chinese platform, focusing more on Facebook and Twitter.
Himself Salvini, skilled at using social media to promote himself, used to use TikTok only to republish videos broadcast on other platforms, something that only changed more recently.
“For me, social networks are a form of pastime and sharing free time, but for years they have also been a precious place for confrontation and collection of suggestions, including TikTok,” said the ultra-right senator this Thursday.
“If Renzi comes in, great. If Berlusconi comes in, great. Fortunately, it is a democratic, open and virtual square”, added Salvini.
In an interview with ANSA, the director of digital consultancy Sociometrica, Antonio Preiti, stated that TikTok requires its “own language, marked by speed, rhythm, irony and The music”. “It's a fun social network, oriented toward sensationalism, not opinion,” she declared. (ANSA).
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