Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1512115
bility to dissect, here… Let's start by exploring the pos- sibilities that may account for this apparent 'total system fail- ure': starting with the likeliest (i.e., that Dutch polls were pre- dicting different – sometimes conflicting – results). This may well be true (it's an- other thing I didn't bother check- ing, to be honest), but… who the hell even cares, anyway? Leaving aside that European polls were often just as 'off-target', before many of the above-mentioned European 'Far right wis'… the media, of all people, should be the first to know that: a) polls can be highly er- ratic or misleading, even at the best of times (look under 'Spring Hunting Referendum, Malta' for further details); b) They also tend to be particularly unreliable, when it comes to tracking the voting intentions of people who are either 'voting against their own political conscience', as it were… or, even more frequently, voting for parties branded 'unpopular' (if not 'downright EVIL'), by the mainstream media itself. Once again, I could literally fill this entire newspaper with global examples of both categories: but I'll limit myself to quoting just one article – written by, um, my- self– about the equally 'shock- ing' gains of another 'Far Right Populist party': this time, Nor- man Lowell's 'Imperium Europa' (which had likewise given all other minor parties/candidates – including AD's Arnold Casso- la, and former PN heavyweight Josie Muscat – a good old-fash- ioned 'run for their money', in the June 2008 EP elections): "While not exactly unexpected, the Lowell trend was not picked up by various polls and surveys before Saturday's vote. Malta- Today had placed his showing as an undefined portion of the "others" – a category which al- so included Cecil Herbert Jones and Nazzarenu Bonnici. "As in other European coun- tries, it seems that a substantial portion of far right sympathisers either refused to participate in polls outright, or else registered their voting intention as 'unde- cided'…" Nonetheless, those same 'off-target' Dutch polls may ac- count for at least part of the answer… as evidenced by the following headline, from the Brussels-based (and hugely 'pro- EU)' news-portal, 'Politico'. Ahead of the same election, Politico had reported that: 'Dutch on the brink of electing first female leader' [November 21, 2023]… … and given that it is highly unlikely that Geert Wilders him- self underwent any form of 'gen- der re-assignment therapy', at any point during the campaign: I think we can all safely deduce that 'Politico' must have had an- other Dutch politician in mind, with that headline… Under those circumstances: well, yeah, I can sort of see how the Far Right's victory would have come as a 'shock' (to a newspaper which had so inex- cusably 'called it wrong', just a few days earlier), but… Come on. It's a pretty lame ex- cuse, don't ya think? That leaves with only one task left, in our autopsy: determining the precise 'cause of death'. (in other words: WHY did news- papers like 'Politico', and all the others, make that horribly-in- accurate prediction, in the first place? From this point on, we can only speculate: and for what it's worth, this is my own guess. It's say it's for the same reason that the European Commission likewise always 'disregards' (or, even worse, 'distorts') the result of every poll and survey, which ever run counter to its own de- sired outcome. For instance, the way Commis- sion President Ursula von der Leyen responded to a recent Eu- robarometer poll, in which 61% - that's right, folks: almost two- thirds – of European citizens declared that they were 'dissatis- fied with the direction the EU is taking, as a whole'. Von der Leyen's response? If I may take the liberty to par- aphrase the gist, in my own words… it sounded like: "This poll clearly confirms that Europeans approve of the main aims of the EU; they're just a little unhappy with how we're actually trying to achieve those aims, that's all'… And that, alone, explains two things, really: 1) Why the Far Right is finding it so very easy, to capi- talise on a widespread Europe- an disgruntlement that is being actively IGNORED by the EU itself; and 2) Why the world's me- dia – which unaccountably on- ly ever reports 'what politicians say' (instead of 'what people out there actually THINK) – once again failed to predict, what everyone else saw coming a full mile away. Q. E. (Bloody-) D… maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 NOVEMBER 2023 OPINION 11 Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) will become the largest party in the Netherlands by a considerable distance in an astonishing election It's say it's for the same reason that the European Commission likewise always 'disregards' (or, even worse, 'distorts') the result of every poll and survey, which ever run counter to its own desired outcome