Il populismo di sinistra: il Movimento Cinque Stelle e il Movimento Arancione a Napoli

In the 2018 political elections in Naples, the 5-Star Movement was the first placed party by far, obtaining the highest vote share in the country. Since then it has experienced some very disappointing municipal election results. The main reason for this difference lies in the competition it faced from the «Orange Movement», the political movement built around the Naples Mayor Luigi de Magistris, with whom they share some basic characteristics. The two groupings share a discourse from the political left against the political class that has rules the municipal government and the region in recent decades. This article analyses the relationship between the two movements, examining the results from municipal, regional, national and European elections. Moreover, through interviews with key players and analysis of news reports, it reconstructs the groups’ characteristics and their communication strategies. Finally, through an analysis of the electoral flows at the municipal and sub-municipal level, it estimates the exchanges and the electoral share between the two political groupings.