This article analyzes and discusses the strategic communication choices made by the Portuguese political party PAN (People – Animals – Nature) during the initial years of its emergence on the national political spectrum. This party elected its first MP to the Portuguese Parliament in 2015. In 2019, it elected its first MP to the European Parliament and strengthened its national representation, electing four MPs for the Portuguese Parliament. This exponential growth is particularly relevant as Portugal had a closed parliamentary system for almost 20 years (since 1999 no new political forces had entered the Portuguese Parliament). Thus, the aim of this article is to discuss the strategies underlying the party’s communication actions that were set up to allow the new political party to gain visibility in the public arena.
During this period (2015-2019), statements were made by PAN members and journalists about 'If Facebook likes were taken into account PAN would be Government'. So, this case also makes it possible to problematize the difficulties that certain groups of “non-media elites” face in setting the agenda in mainstream media (Carpentier, 2011; Hackett, 2000; Hanania, 2016). Studying PAN's choices regarding its communication strategies may provide an opportunity for debate on the attainment of legitimacy and a voice in the public space by certain groups with considered “niche agendas” (Pfetsch; Miltner & Maier, 2016, p. 52), without significant financial resources or established networks of influence, in their creative efforts to alter the balance of power and challenge dominant groups. It can also enhance the debate about political and civic participation in more active ways, at a time of growing concerns about the distancing of citizens from politics and politicians (Carreira, 2019, p. 206). The, online and offline, dynamics of constructing and deconstructing meanings related to strategic communication, impact the increase or decrease of stereotype activation influencing judgments and social perception in various ways (Rivers, Sherman, Rees, Reichardt, & Klauer, 2019) and for this they become relevant to explore in concrete contexts.
Using semi-structured interviews with policymakers most directly involved in defining the strategies that marked the rise of the party between 2015 and 2019 and analyzing the communicative performance in the media (quantitative and qualitative analysis of editorial information in the press, television, radio and online media in 2017), the paper illustrate that when leaders support strategic communications and integrate them into the culture of the organization, results are visible.
In 2017, a total of 17. 653 news about PAN were published, reaching approximately 1.900 million impressions (cumulative total audience). The qualitative analysis of the news indicates a positive favorability of 3.9 points (on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is very negative and 5 very positive). The issue that generated the majority of the news is related to the party's campaign for local elections in September, however, throughout the year is the party's parliamentary activity that gathers most of the information, which made the subject “animals”, considered a niche political agenda, be the most expressive.