The law states that the activity of “partisan political propaganda, whether or not it has an electoral nature, is free and can be carried out even outside campaign periods”. Parties can, whenever they want, put their propaganda on the streets. However, commercial advertising media is prohibited, such as billboards paid for by brands and entities to advertise products or services. The Portuguese socialist delegation in the European Parliament (EP), however, chose to make a clean sweep and, after several unsuccessful attempts for legal reasons, managed to find someone who would agree to place it on a digital advertising billboard, in the middle of the Estoril roundabout, next to the Club of Tennis, its political propaganda.
SAPO, official source of the Portuguese delegation of the socialists, guarantees that there were no refusals, but rather “a normal market consultation, carried out with three companies operating in Portugal” and that they all presented proposals, “one being chosen, as happened in the remaining Member States”, as part of the propaganda campaign of the European socialist group (S&D) which aims to “highlight the greatest achievements” of recent years.
To SAPO, the PS clarified that “this poster is not from the PS”. “This is a pan-European information campaign about the values and policies defended by S&D which, following the EP’s own rules, can only be placed on commercial networks and until the start of the electoral campaign”, adds an official party source in Lisbon. And refer any explanation to the Portuguese socialist delegation in Strasbourg.
If the origin of the contract is not in Lisbon, it is certain that several companies operating advertising on street furniture received a request to place advertising in the spaces they manage and refused the contract, for legal reasons. In a legal opinion, the jurist explains that the Advertising Law clearly separates the waters when it comes to parties, not allowing billboard companies and spaces dedicated to advertising to be used in political advertising.
“Because they have different purposes, advertisers cannot use freedom of expression rights to advertise, just as advertising licenses cannot be used for political propaganda purposes”, confirm jurists. “Having been granted for the purpose of advertising, they are defrauding the determining reason for their grant”, concludes in an opinion consulted by SAPO.
In fact, party propaganda is always mounted by the parties themselves, in places designed for this purpose and without recourse to companies that work the advertising spaces — as is the case with the AD poster visible next to the space contracted by the Portuguese socialist delegation in the PE to Dreammedia. The reason is simple: these advertising billboards, particularly modern digital solutions that even incorporate video, as is the case, are prohibited. “If we could run political campaigns, we would always do so”, a sector source tells SAPO, recognizing that it would be a sure source of income.
Contacted by SAPO, the company that agreed to place the billboard did not respond to the questions addressed to it, so far.
According to Decree-Law No. 330/90, of October 23, which approves the Advertising Code, advertising is considered to be “any form of communication made by entities of a public or private nature, within the scope of a commercial activity , industrial, artisanal or liberal, with the direct or indirect objective of promoting, with a view to its commercialization or disposal, any goods or services”. And in paragraph 3 it is specified that “for the purposes of this diploma, political propaganda is not considered advertising”, clearly leaving out the possibility of parties using these formats.
There is also another point emphasized in the legal opinion: since advertising on billboards/billboards/shelters is paid by the person interested in the dissemination, unlike what happens with political advertising, this use, contrary to what the law says, “raises questions of potential conflicts of interest