Belgian party leaders’ representation of self(ie): the new face of political leadership on Instagram

Party leaders, despite not being elected by the citizenry, hold powerful positions. This has been studied in terms of intra-party democracy and their electoral functions. A second line of inquiry centers on the increasing mediatization and personalization of politics. This has led to shifting power in party politics, where party leaders have taken over the party-spotlight. Using social media, party leaders can directly supply the images upon which their political relevance and capabilities are judged by their audiences. The growing demands placed upon politicians to make their personal life accessible for public scrutiny raises questions as to how party leaders present themselves on social media. Social media has exacerbated the personalization of leadership, blurring the boundaries between the public and private lives of leaders. Through increasing control over their visual self-representation online they try to negotiate a preferential reading of their character traits and leadership qualities; especially mobilizing their gender, class and cultural background. This paper draws upon visual methods and analyses how party leadership is performed on Instagram by a new generation of party leaders in Belgium. Sammy Mahdi of the Christian-democratic party (CD&V), Conner Rousseau of the Flemish socialists (Vooruit), and Georges-Luis Bouchez of the liberal party (MR) gained prominence after the 2019 elections and actively use social media as part of their broader communication strategy. Their young age (early to mid-thirties) and sudden rise to power breaks with traditional notions of leadership that emphasised political experience. The findings reveal that, despite differences in their political projects, all party leaders use similar visual cues and story-telling elements to present a prototypical picture of the party leader. They draw heavily on markers of masculinity and status, both in communication about their personal and public identity. They present themselves as hyper-masculine, drawing on various masculine codes such as womanizing, sports and luxury status symbols. Their performances visually reinform the somatic norm of what a prototypical party leader (should) look(s) like and may have a far fetching impact on the (gender)inclusiveness of Belgian politics.