(Greetings Adnkronos) – Due to the regional elections in Liguria, which will take place on Sunday 27 and Monday 28 October, the competition between the candidates is also very intense on social media. A recent analysis conducted by Adnkronos, through the SocialData platform, reveals how online debate is shaping public perception of main rivals Marco Bucci and Andrea Orlando.
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Pucci, the current mayor of Genoa, appears to have more mentions than his rival, with more than 9,000 compared to Orlando’s 8,400. But the most significant difference emerges when analyzing engagement rates. Pucci boasts nearly three times higher participation than Orlando, which is a sign of a more active audience engagement towards it. Furthermore, sentiment towards Pucci tends to be mostly positive, while Orlando has to deal with a more negative public opinion.
The final context: a heated and controversial debate
The spike in signals for both candidates came after two key events. The first concerns the meeting between Pucci and Orlando during the opening of the Fontanabona exhibition. The second episode included former 5-Star Senator Nicola Moura, who was interviewed by Il Foglio. With his criticism of the political dynamics in Liguria and his speech on Pucci’s illness, he sparked heated debate, contributing to increased mention of both candidates.
At the same time, the analysis highlights how regional politics in Liguria stimulate online interest. More than one million conversations, between March 10 and October 9, focused on the upcoming regional elections and other related topics, resulting in a total of 81 million interactions. This agitation reflects the growing interest on the part of Ligurian citizens, not only towards politics, but also towards other issues such as transport and the environment.
On the one hand, if Pucci seems to have positive feelings, another hero of the Ligurian political debate, the former president of the region Giovanni Totti, who has more than 30 thousand mentions and 6.5 million interactions, has to deal with very negative feelings. This number can be partly explained by the legal events in which they were involved.
Main topics: politics, transport and environment
The picture that emerges from the analysis of online conversations is clear: politics, transport and the environment are the three main topics driving public debate in Liguria. Politics, in particular, collects 32.87% of the total mentions, underscoring how closely Ligurian voters care about local political dynamics, especially in light of the regional elections. Genoa is the city leading this debate, with nearly 800,000 mentions, followed by Savona, Imperia and La Spezia.
Transportation represents the second most discussed topic, with 19.07% of mentions. This data highlights how important the issue of infrastructure is for Uighurs, especially in a region characterized by a mountainous terrain and often inadequate communication network. In this case too, sentiment was mostly negative, reflecting citizens’ dissatisfaction with the management of local public transport and infrastructure.
The environment, although representing “only” 10.89% of conversations, saw increasing interest, especially in the provinces of Imperia and Savona. In these areas, the discussion focused on issues related to sustainability, mass tourism management, and the environmental consequences of poor development regulation. On this issue too, sentiment is mostly negative, a sign of growing concern about the environmental impact of local policies.
Other issues that social users care about is healthcare (9.6% of mentions), with a focus on the quality of local healthcare services and culture (5.4%).
Differences between the Ligurian provinces
Analysis of online conversations revealed that the province of Genoa dominates the discussion, with 792,000 mentions and more than 5.4 million interactions. The city, being the largest regional capital, focuses most discussions on politics, transportation, environment and security, with mostly negative sentiments around these issues.
Savona, although having fewer mentions than Genoa, has the highest engagement rate per post (36.06%). In addition to politics and transportation, culture played an important role, with 16,640 mentions and 1.14 million interactions. Negative sentiments were particularly strong regarding safety (40.2%) and energy (37.5%).
Imperia focused above all on environmental issues, with 14,360 mentions and the largest participation compared to other topics. Negative perception of the environment (24.6%) was overcome by politics (30.3%) and safety (35.2%).
However, in La Spezia, transport dominated the conversations, accounting for 28.6% of mentions. Safety was also an important topic, with 30.9% negative opinions.
Regarding regional newspaper posts on Facebook, politics is the most discussed topic with 32.87% of mentions, followed by transportation (19.07%), economy (11.4%), healthcare (9.61%), and environment (6.50%). Savona newspapers recorded the greatest participation, while Imperia newspapers gave wide space to the environmental topic. Tourism is surprising, in last place with 0.69% of mentions, despite the importance of Liguria’s tourism profession.
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