Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1512115
TELL you what, let's try a little experiment. Here are a few ran- dom headlines from mainstream international newspapers, about this week's parliamentary elec- tions in The Netherlands. All you have to do is figure out what (if anything) they in common. Ready? Here goes: > Dutch election: Far-right's Wilders aims to be PM after SHOCK win – Reuters > 'A Brexit moment': Dutch voters digest Geert Wilders' SHOCK election win – The Guardian > In a SHOCK for Europe, an- ti-Islam populist Geert Wilders records a massive win in Dutch elections – NBC > Geert Wilders has sent SHOCKwaves across the Neth- erlands – Sky News > 'Dutch Trump' Geert Wilders SHOCKS Netherlands with huge election win – The Daily Mail… OK, I'll hit the Pause button for now: because otherwise… well, it's a little like those 'Pringles' ads on TV. 'Once you pop, you can't stop.' Again, this is a small experi- ment you can all try for your- selves at home. Just Google the words 'Geert Wilder/shock', and see what actually pops up. (On my own feed, it's a never-ending list of identical headlines from – among many, MANY others - The Times of India; The Aus- tralian; France24; The New York Times; Bloomberg; CNN; Eu- ronews; The South China Morn- ing Post; Japan Times… etc, etc, etc.) Anyway, you get the point. It seems as though the entire world – and I really do mean, THE ENTIRE WORLD – was some- how 'shocked', to discover that yet another 'Far Right, populist politician', has won 'yet another election', in 'yet another Euro- pean country'… even though a string of similar Far Right elec- toral victories had already been registered, in several EU mem- ber states (not to mention pretty much every else in the world: in- cluding, most recently, Argenti- na) over the last few years, alone. I mean… seriously, though. It is at moments such as these, that I utterly despair of the sorry state of global journalism. Not, mind you, because – as a journalist, myself – I had accurately 'pre- dicted' the result of that election. (Truth be told: like everyone else, I generally rely on – or used to, anyway – the international media, for that…) But for reasons that are so flamingly self-evident, I shouldn't even have to point them out at all. Sorry, but… how many 'Far right electoral victo- ries' does it have to take, exactly, before the world's media finally wakes up to what's REALLY go- ing on, here? OK, let me try another tack. This is a small excerpt from an article in yesterday's The Guard- ian (that's right, the same Brit- ish left-wing newspaper, that had earlier expressed 'shock' at Wilder's win): "From Helsinki to Rome and Berlin to Brussels, far-right par- ties are climbing steadily up the polls […]. "Giorgia Meloni, whose party has neofascist roots, heads Ita- ly's farthest-right government since the second world war. The far right is part of the ruling co- alition in Finland and […] prop- ping up another in Sweden. "In Austria, the FPÖ is well ahead in the polls less than a year from the next election, while in Germany, the far-right AfD has surged from 10% to more than 21 […]. "If presidential elections were held today in France, polls sug- gest Marine Le Pen of the far- right National Rally […] would win. Far-right Flemish national- ists are set to make big gains in the Belgian elections in June…" By my count, I make that EIGHT (8) EU member states, in which parties that can be de- scribed as either 'Far Right', or 'populist' (or even 'proto-fas- cist') are making sweeping gains in their respective countries' po- litical landscapes. So can anyone out there explain to me, how the same newspaper I just quoted above (as well as every other major world media outlet: including The Guard- ian's right-wing counterpart, The Daily Mail) could possibly be even 'modestly surprised' – still less 'utterly dumbfound- ed' – by an election result that THEY THEMSELVES SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONES, TO PREDICT?? Sorry, but… as a certain Brit- ish country schoolmaster might have put it, around 500 years ago: "O, 'tis a fault too, too un- pardonable!!" No, indeed: the only truly 'shocking' thing about Geert Wilder's win, in last week's Dutch elections, was how the world's media managed to spec- tacularly 'take its eye off the ball', for long enough that… well, Europe's Far Right was given yet another chance, to actually 'score the winning goal, against the run of play'… for the ump- teenth time! THAT, in a nutshell, is what happened in the Netherlands this week; and given that history has a rather depressing tenden- cy to repeat itself, from time to time – and, oh look! There's a whole new opportunity for that sort of thing coming right up, in the form of next year's EP elec- tions… … Sorry, but this 'fault' is in- deed 'too, too unpardonable', not to merit at least a tentative post-mortem (if nothing else, to figure out what went so horribly, horribly, WRONG). Without further ado, then: bring out your autopsy-kits, folks! We have the corpse of In- ternational Journalism's credi- maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 NOVEMBER 2023 10 OPINION The only 'shocking' thing about Geert Wilders' win, is how the world's media reported it… Raphael Vassallo It seems as though the entire world was somehow 'shocked', to discover that yet another 'Far Right, populist politician', has won 'yet another election', in 'yet another European country'…