Archive for March 26th, 2006
The Opinion Polls: Nothing Happened
Or maybe: Almost nothing.
On the one hand, this Sunday’s Gallup poll confirmed that the Danish Social Democrats still face a hugh problem in attracting voters. Compared to February’s poll, the party’s share of voter support was down from 23,2% to 22,5%. This month’s winner is the Social Liberal Party with 11% of the votes.
On the other hand, the balance between the governing coalition and the opposition is nearly unchanged. The government and the Danish People’s Party commands support from 52-53% of the voters, while the opposition can count on 44-46% of the voters.
I Put a Spell on You
During modern history political parties have taken to all kinds of strategies in order to entice people to vote for them or to scare them from voting for the opponents.
The introduction of the secret ballot put some limits to strategies of intimidation but a fascinating story from the Israeli election campaign shows that with a little imagination, you can still implement scare tactics.
The story concerns Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who is the spiritual leader of the religious Shas party and who is accused of using illegal curses against Israelis who do not vote for the party.
It is not the first time that Shas has been the centre of controversy: A former party leader was convicted of corruption some years ago and back in 1996 Rabbi Yosef distributed amulets to people who promised to vote for the party. That move significantly improved the party’s share of the vote but led to the outlawing of such practices.
In case you think that Shas is led by a bunch of religious maniacs – that may be so, but as a religious party Shas has often been able to place itself in the centre of Israeli politics. Religious parties are fairly indifferent with regard to the question of Israeli borders as long as their coalition partners support religious institutions and provide generous social benefits.
On a linguistic perspective: If Israeli legislation makes some curses illegal, which curses can then be applied legally? The Danish Social Democrats might need some urgent help and inspiration here.