Meloni government’s strategic narratives vis-à-vis global financial markets: on the path of economic sovereignism?

The aim of the article is to analyze the Meloni government’ strategic narratives vis-à-vis global financial markets, including their use of populist and sovereignist discursive-ideological frames, in order to analyze whether these narratives are more radical in relation to the past. We first introduce the concepts of populism and sovereignism, clarify definitional aspects and look at their relation with financialization; then, we provide the research framework based on the use of strategic narrative. This paper follows an in-depth diachronic analysis of three different Italian populist/populist radical-right governments in relation to financial markets: Berlusconi IV government (during 2011–2012), Conte I (2018–2019) and Meloni (2022–), looking at the potential evolution of narratives. The article’s contribution is twofold: (a) First, it further disentangles the populism–sovereignism relation, offering a map of the key frames adopted by populist/sovereignist political entities; (b) second, it diachronically compares three populist/right-wing governments, in different historical junctures, in relation to financial markets. We found that the strategic narratives by some key actors in the Berlusconi IV, Conte I and Meloni governments vis-à-vis global financial markets are in substantial continuity. Yet, we argue that Italy’s current government has growing preferences for a narrative approach based on (economic) sovereignism.