During the election campaign for the Provincial Council last month, it seemed to be an almost absolute taboo polarize. For the occasion, that word can be translated in this context as: ‘speaking and thinking in sharp contrasts’. In an election campaign, you would expect that to be obvious. After all, it must be made clear to voters what the difference is between the various parties. This way he or she can make a better choice in the voting booth.
But politicians – and political commentators – very often used the ‘p-word’ this time to simply sideline others. Someone who clearly and clearly stated his point of view ‘polarized’ and was therefore finished.
That mood has been in the country for some time. See, for example, the campaign of the acclaimed Stichting Ideele Reclame (Sire): ‘Don’t lose each other when polarization approaches’ – the slogan warns menacingly. And in the explanation it is about preventing “people from being driven apart” when it comes to nitrogen, asylum policy, the climate or vaccinations.
Vaccinations? Most have already forgotten the polarization between ‘right-minded’ and ‘wappies’, but the current hypersensitivity may well have its roots in the time of the pandemic.
The verb to polarize is related to the noun pool. Van Dale discusses the geometric, geological and figurative meanings of this word. The latter meaning is “each of two opposing directions or principles.” And the tension between those two poles is about political polarization.
Compromise
The counterpart of polarizing is: coming to one compromise. That comes, via medieval French, from Latin and means a ‘mutual promise’. So a settlement where both opposites admit something. In the Dutch multi-party landscape, the compromise is the winner of every election. Positions that are propagated during election time end up in the darkroom of coalition formation after election day. Winning parties make agreements to form a board together. And for that it is necessary that compromises are made by means of exchanging or weakening points of view.
Both processes, polarizing and compromising, have in common that they are necessary in the political handiwork and at the same time disreputable. See the verb compromise which can be derived from compromise but acquired a negative meaning: ‘to make suspicious’.
After the parliamentary elections, it is now clear that BBB has won the elections in all provinces and that the movement is expected to have the largest fraction in the Senate, which is elected by the provincial council. However, BBB does not have an absolute majority and is in opposition; that is, outside the group of parties that do have that majority in the House of Representatives. Parties that have just had an election are often still in campaign mode and continue to polarise. While now the time for compromise has come.
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