Schlein on the upswing, Meloni on the decline: the useless obsession with polls

Schlein and Meloni: the Italian obsession with polls

Since Elly Schlein defeated her rival Stefano Bonaccini, conquering the secretariat of the Democratic Party, the hunt to analyze the percentage shifts in the consensus of the various parties in the now almost daily political polls has begun. Beyond the happiness of the pollsters, who have now been recruited from the vast plethora of political commentators, in the equally frequent television and radio political analysis salons, this all-Italian habit certainly does not help politics and politicians. And it is also for this reason that perhaps in Italy, in moments of great difficulty, the help of a so-called technical government is resorted to, perhaps too often, which is devoid of any type of interest electoralcan also take perhaps unpopular decisions, without fearing any kind of backlash at the level of electoral consensus.

Because in this case the famous aphorism of a great Italian politician, unanimously recognized Alcide De Gasperi, cannot fail to come to mind, when he said that “a politician looks to the next elections, a statesman looks to the next generation”. And it is precisely this that for years has been the mantra used by the anti-politics FrTo highlight how politicians look too much at electoral consensus and less at the common interest. Polls must be considered for what they are, statistical surveys, often divergent from each other, which must be evaluated with the right measure by everyone. Because the risk is that of generating illusions, hopes, disagreements and misunderstandings that certainly do not benefit those in government, but not even those in the opposition.

Not to mention that the polls themselves (perhaps more attention should be paid to their diffusion because, as we know, exaggerations are always harmful)They are very illusory and above all not very indicative in the long runbecause being the result of the momentary impressions of individual citizens, they lend themselves to components, not least the contingency of the moment and the emotional thrust of certain events or current events that can lead to different and sometimes misleading interpretations, whose feeling and perceptions change over time.

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