The study adopts a historical perspective, analyzing from a linguistic and rhetorical point of view the parliamentary speeches of three Italian populist politicians before April 1992, that is to say, before the fall of the traditional Italian parties that dominated the scene in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of a new political era. The aim is to ascertain whether the formal characteristics of Italian populist discourse are completely dependent on the general political landscape and on the mass media or whether it is possible to identify any linguistic or rhetorical features that are inherently linked to Italian populism.