Lula tries a new strategy for government communication

Target of criticism even by allies of the Planalto Palace, the communication of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has been one of the main bottlenecks of the Executive in these first six months of office. At the ministerial meeting last Thursday (15), the PT again called for a reorganization of this sector. In the new strategy, Lula intends to favor, for example, communication through radios.

During the meeting with the ministers, Lula defended that there should be an alignment of all portfolios with the Secretariat of Communication (Secom) to avoid disclosures that are out of line with the Planalto. In addition, he stressed that the policies implemented are “by the government” and not by ministers.

“There will be a discussion about the ministers’ relationship with Secom. It is important for us to know. We can publicize the things we do, with much more professionalism, if we have the minimum of education to do things collectively,” said Lula during the opening of the meeting.

At the same time, Lula made a nod to the Minister of Secom, Paulo Pimenta, who became the target of criticism for his performance in the government. “That’s why we put Paulo Pimenta, a friendly, cheerful and smiling figure, to coordinate our communication”, completed the petista.

Lula’s Lives recorded low ratings

In a new strategy to try to expand the reach of the federal government’s communication, Secom launched a podcast with Lula to talk about the actions of the PT administration. The program, however, has achieved low ratings.

This Monday (19), for example, the second edition of the program “Conversa com o Presidente” recorded just over 7,000 simultaneous hits on the PT’s YouTube channel. In last week’s edition, that number was even lower, around 5,800 simultaneous views. The transmission, scheduled to take place weekly on Tuesdays, was brought forward to this Monday because, at night, Lula leaves for the trip to Europe.

Government members, however, minimize the low audience and assess that the objective of the live model is not to reach high rates at the time of transmission, but to place guidelines considered positive by the government on the agenda of the press and social networks.

Despite the speech, Secom intends to release the live signal to all radio stations that show interest in retransmitting it.

The internal assessment is that the transmission time, which takes place around 9 am, benefits radio listeners across the country. In other words, according to the government’s calculations, the strategy of transmitting a positive agenda from the PT’s management can reach mainly the electorate in the interior of the country. The expectation is that the availability of the signal will occur in the next editions.

Another point that Secom will invest in will be the “cuts” of the best moments of the program as a way of trying to increase the impact on social networks.

Government wants to bet on interviews for state radios

In addition, Planalto will invest in a strategy so that the PT always grants interviews to a pool of radios whenever you visit a certain state. This week, for example, Lula spoke to radio stations in Goiás before visiting the city of Rio Verde to inaugurate a railroad project in the region.

On the occasion, the PT took the opportunity to make signs, mainly for agribusiness and for the governor of Goiás, Ronaldo Caiado (União Brasil). It was an attempt to get closer to Lula after successive statements against the sector. The president has even called agro businessmen “fascists and denialists”.

The nod was also a way of trying to increase support for Lula in the region. In the second round of the 2022 election, former president Jair Bolsonaro received approximately 60% of the votes, compared to 38% for the PT.

“Goiás is a very important state in the transit of this country’s products, especially for agriculture and we are going to do everything to help it, you can be sure”, said Lula during the interview.

Government communication was criticized by Lula’s allies

Communication difficulties have become one of the recurring themes in Lula’s conversations with lower-level congressmen in recent weeks. Such as People’s Gazette showed, Pimenta had been the target of “friendly fire” among members of the government itself because of his performance in relation to the communication of the Lula government.

Recently, for example, the head of Secom clashed with deputy André Janones (Avante-MG), who was one of the main articulators of the PT campaign. In an interview with GloboNewsthe deputy from Minas Gerais said that part of the negotiation difficulty that the government has faced in Congress is related to communication.

Janones said that the government is unable to guide discussions on social networks, for example. “So, in my opinion, we are being defeated in the dispute over narratives. By losing the dispute over narratives, our negotiating power is weakened”, he said.

The deputy was hit back by the minister, who stated that government communication should adopt a less incisive stance than that of the election period. “Once the election is over, whoever wins has to govern for everyone. Lula is the president of all Brazilian men and women. For that, we cannot have communication that feeds this environment, which was an environment, in a way, that made Brazil would have to live with intolerance, hatred, violence”, argued Pimenta.

In addition to this episode with Janones, Pimenta became the target of internal criticism after he even announced that there would be a cut in Banco do Brasil’s sponsorship of Agrishow, the largest agricultural fair in Latin America, which did not happen. The crisis gained repercussions after the Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, withdrew from participating in the event due to the invitation made to former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). According to Planalto members, Pimenta announced the cut of the institution’s sponsorship without prior alignment with the other sectors of the Executive.

For the minister, however, the Lula government’s allies perhaps expected a new “hate office”. “Part of our base may have imagined that we would be an office of hatred in reverse, but that is not Secom’s role,” he added in an interview with GloboNews.

Secom has used Planalto networks to mock political opponents

On another front, Secom has used official government profiles to mock Lula’s main opponents. In the most recent episode, the folder made a post that simulates a PowerPoint about the 137 days of the president. The post refers to the impeachment of federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR).

In the post, the communication celebrated accomplishments of the Lula administration, such as the drop in inflation and the appreciation of the minimum wage, in the same layout model of a presentation made by the then Public Prosecutor, as coordinator of Operation Lava Jato, to prosecutors in September 2016 At the time, he accused the PT leader of leading a criminal group embezzling money from Petrobras in the case of the triplex.

Before that, the folder took advantage of the Federal Police operation that investigates the alleged insertion of false data in the vaccination card of former president Jair Bolsonaro to publish a montage on social networks with an image of Zé Gotinha and the message “will travel abroad ? Regularize your vaccines “.