The Mutual Accusation

Koert Debeuf*

After five successive victories of the extreme right in Belgium, June 13 of 2004 was the real breakthrough of the Vlaams Blok. If you take into consideration that the party that came home first was in fact a cartel of two parties, we must admit that, with 24% of the votes, the Vlaams Blok became the biggest party of Flanders.
How is this possible? That is the question everybody keeps asking after every single election. And every time there is the same mutual accusation between media and politics. The media accuses the politicians of the wrong policies, only caring about their own jobs, and bad communication. Politicians accuse the media of only giving bad news and using bad programme formats in which they do not have enough time for explaining what the real problems are about. Probably they are both right.
If a member of parliament produces a serious, but not sexy proposal, he has no chance of getting a proper article in a newspaper, and certainly not coverage on television. That is frustrating, but the media has a reason for that. What is the chance, they argue, that this proposal will become a reality? After all, if the proposal is not backed by either the party or the government, it has no chance at all. Members of parliament have nothing to say. In fact they don’t dare. Because if they are resistant to what their party is saying, they are taking the risk of not getting a good place on the list for the next elections. It is the party that decides who is going to be elected and who is not.
Besides, it is the party that decides who will become minister or Secretary of State. So the better your relations are with the top of the party, the higher your chances of a political career. On the other hand the top of the parties have their own way of choosing members of parliament. Candidates need to carry votes. You can’t carry votes until you are known by the people. And the best way to become known is the media and in the first place television. That is why it is easy to get people on your electoral lists that are already known - people from television programs, football players, singers. I am not discussing their qualities, but to be a good politician or statesman or stateswoman probably other qualities are needed. The remaining MPs are chosen on the basis of their loyalty to one or another member at the top of the party.
The strategy of the media is almost the same. They are not paid to give very good and long political debates. A programme is as good as the amount of people watching it. Television wants good communicators, celebrities, good-looking people. And with this, the circle is complete. Parliament is filled with good-communicating people that are liked by the media. The rest of the MPs are just sitting there to vote and support their political masters.
How can we expect people to think that politics is really working to solve their problems? How can we expect people to believe that politics is not just a game between media and politicians? That is why we really should reconsider the relationship between these two key players. Otherwise the extreme right, mostly chosen by people who feel uneasy with the whole situation, will keep on winning until the end of democracy.

Bruxelles, June 24th 2004


* Koert Debeuf, writing in his personal capacity here, is strategy advisor to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. He studied Ancient History at the Catholic University of Leuven and at the Università degli studi di Bologna. He was the national president of the CVP-Jongeren (Young Christian Democrats), founder-spokesman of a Christian democratic renewel movement and co-founder and political secretary of the New Christian Democrats - a political movement that promotes cooperation between christian democrats and liberals. He is the author of the book "Towards an open people's party (2001) and of the mission statements of the Christian Democratic party (2001) and of the Liberal party (2002). He was co-author of “The Democratic Papers” collection (British Council, Vision et al. 2004).


PREVIOUS PAGE

The opinions

Send your opinion

The Mutual Accusation