The Image of the Political Parties’ Leaders. The Case of the Electoral Campaign of 2011

Abstract

The main objective of the publication is to analyse the image of the political parties’ leaders participating in the electoral campaign of 2011. The analysis is conducted in terms of the characteristic features of the image and the strategy adopted in the campaign. Due to the limited scope of the work, it only focuses on the leaders of the political parties represented at the parliamentary political level. These are: Jarosław Kaczyński, Grzegorz Napieralski, Janusz Palikot, Waldemar Pawlak and Donald Tusk.  Several proposals are formulated as a way of conclusion.  Firstly, personalization in the elections is in progress. This is excellently exemplified by the inclusion of the name of the political party leader in the name of the party itself – The Support Movement for Palikot. Secondly, the images of the party leaders have dominated the electoral campaign.  The image of the leader is closely correlated with the political party and its electoral campaign strategy. It often determines the victory or defeat the electoral campaign. Thirdly, the professionalization of the campaign (through the formulation of the strategy, the involvement of professional consultants - in particular in the case of The Civic Platform); and their costs were at the highest level ever in the history of Polish parliamentary campaigns.