Political intimization as a key to bypassing traditional leadership selection procedures: The case of Matteo Renzi

Italy’s Partito Democratico has for a long time been characterized by rigid mechanisms of leadership selection. Prior to Renzi’s ascent to leadership, no leader had managed to rise to power without being backed up by the party’s key figures. By undertaking a content analysis of Italy’s most important entertainment magazine, Chi, and by comparing Matteo Renzi’s coverage with the coverage received by another three Partito Democratico leading figures, Pier Luigi Bersani, Massimo D’Alema and Enrico Letta, this article argues that when demand for political innovation is particularly high, political intimization can represent an alternative and fruitful way to party leadership.