Finding Hidden Swingers in the 2022 Italian Elections Twitter Discourse

The volume of the Italian online political discourse on social media has recently increased, but the coverage level does not compare with other Countries such as the US. Nonetheless, researchers focused on studying polarization and homophily with respect to political debates or investigating the role of populism in online engagement. In this research landscape, the analysis of political preference shifts through social media remains to be explored. We aim to bridge this gap by examining the Twitter discourse during the 2022 Italian general elections, with a specific emphasis on political "swingers". In particular, our findings indicate a stable political discourse in Italy, yet they also uncover a growing presence of political swingers willing to shift their support to significantly different factions.