Political propaganda, the strategically planned control of informative content by political elites with the goal of re-shaping perception and influencing behaviour, is an integral part of political communication. Although election campaigns are an opportunity for political parties to give well-argued presentations of their programmes, they are often dominated by propaganda-laden content, which subjects the political discourse to the principles of the exchange of emotional and rational appeals. The goal of this thesis is to determine the presence of propaganda-laden content in the communication of political parties during an election campaign, as well as the effects that they lead to. This study relies upon both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the content of election campaign programmes, visual materials, and communication solutions in virtual public space, using materials circulated by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) in the weeks leading up to the 2016 parliamentary elections in Croatia.