“DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER”

A DISCUSSION ON THE BOLSONARIST REPOSITIONING OF RIGHT-WING PARTIES

Abstract

The study investigated whether Brazilian political parties actually rebranded or simply camouflaged their communication practices, especially in relation to visual identities and discourses, with a view to the 2020 and 2022 elections, as a reflection of the rise of Bolsonarism. To achieve this, the visual identities and statutes/manifestos of the three parties that aligned the most with Bolsonarism were analyzed: 1) PEN/Patriota; 2) PRB/Republicanos; and 3) PR/PL. The results indicate that the repositioning gained strength with the rise of the right-wing in the country, leading to a diversity of new names within the associations. The visual reformulation of Brazilian parties also carries an ideological characteristic, as it is used as a strategy for repositioning, primarily among parties leaning further to the right on the ideological spectrum. Therefore, in the cases studied here, Bolsonarism was a structuring factor in the repositioning of political parties.