“…In Italy, as in other countries, there is a constant decline in trust in institutions (OECD, 2017 ). A survey conducted in 2019 (before the pandemic) showed that trust in institutions has dwarfed public and political organizations, except the Pope (Demos, 2019 ); moreover, a specific study on political institutions shows that Italians have little faith in parties, parliament, and the government (Bergman et al, 2021 ). After all, since the 1990s the country has been the scene of great political scandals (Pardo, 2004 ) and numerous cases of corruption which, by violating the democratic contract, have partly compromised citizens' trust in the political system (Memoli, 2011 ; Pardo, 2018 ).…”