La comunicazione politica di Matteo Renzi Analisi di un caso specifico: il discorso alla settantesima Assemblea Generale dell'ONU e l'interpretazione in simultanea verso l'inglese

Political communication is extremely fascinating. The ultimate goal of politics is to persuade the voters, hence effective communication is of paramount importance for politicians. Matteo Renzi is a very skilled speaker. He entered the Italian political scene in a moment when the country was facing a lot of problems and citizens had lost their confidence in politics. Since the beginning of his career, Matteo Renzi has tried to regain the trust of Italian voters by using his communicative skills he is able to adapt to the context in which he speaks. Moreover, he is a good storyteller. Throughout his political career, he tells the story of a hero –himself – who fights against different enemies and works for and together with his citizens. His speeches are persuasive, engaging and emotional. The aim of this study is to show how he develops his rhetoric, by providing a thorough analysis of his political communication. This work is structured as follows. After a brief description of what political communication is and how it has developed in Italy (chapters 1 and 2), Matteo Renzi’s rhetoric is carefully analysed in chapter 3. Then this analysis is used to examine the speech he gave at the UN General Assembly (29th September 2015). Finally, chapter 5 contains an analysis of the simultaneous interpretation of that speech, with the aim of identifying which characteristics of Matteo Renzi’s rhetoric caused problems for the interpreter. Since only one speech and its interpretation are analysed, this final chapter is of no statistical importance. However, it could represent a starting point for further and more detailed analysis carried out with a larger corpus containing more of Matteo Renzi’s speeches and their interpretations into English.