Blame avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic: Presentational strategies by two Italian governments

As several scholars have shown, the COVID crisis is a peculiar prism through which to analyse how governments adopt blame-avoidance techniques, shifting responsibilities towards other actors, such as sub-state governments, experts, and citizens. This chapter compares the strategies adopted by the two governments in facing these two phases of the COVID crisis in Italy. While the first two waves of the pandemic were managed by the second Conte government, a new technocratic-led executive, led by Mario Draghi, was formed in February 2021, with the aim of implementing the vaccination campaign (as well as the management of the European Union Recovery Funds). Through a careful investigation of the communication strategies adopted by the two prime ministers in their press conferences, the chapter traces the blame games played among the main institutional actors responsible for managing the pandemic, providing key insights into the changing relations between politics, technocracy, and expertise in Italy.