Patrick Allemand, the federal secretary of the Socialist Party, after holding a conference on the relationship between politics and the media, agreed to answer questions from middle school students.
Nice Premiรจre Junior: What do you think about the relationship between citizens and the media?
Patrick Allemand: Citizens need the media to be informed about current events and to nourish their own reflections. They can do this either by watching television news, buying newspapers, or now through web media, which allow for more in-depth development of topics.
NP Junior: Why, in your opinion, are the media very important?
PA: It is extremely important, especially for someone in politics, because it is the means that allows us to bring to the citizens’ attention the actions that we are taking.
NP Junior: What interests journalists?
PA: It’s a big mystery. We politicians ask ourselves this every morning. They are interested in reactions to events and less in substantial issues or political problems that often require developments that editorial staff does not grant them in terms of space. So, we often have superficial but general information.
NP Junior: What interests you?
PA: I am forced to play the media’s game, whose rules I did not set. I adapt. I try, through my blog, to inform interested citizens about what an elected official does daily. I cover topics that cannot be addressed through print or broadcast media. Television forces us to condense our thoughts because we have 45 seconds to convey one or two messages.
NP Junior: Why did the media create all those debates last year for a referendum that was pointless since the ‘no’ vote prevailed?
PA: That implies that the media did everything to promote the ‘yes’ vote. I don’t believe that. There were interesting educational programs at times accessible to everyone. Citizens wanted additional information. Many people read the constitutional treaty, even though it is complex. There was a significant desire from the citizens to own this debate. People voted with full knowledge of the facts. This debate was exemplary in terms of the relationship between politics and the media. They played the game of democracy.
NP Junior: Didn’t the media influence the population?
PA: No, I don’t believe so. The debates were pluralistic with supporters of yes, no, politicians, constitutionalists, sociologists. Everyone was involved, and that’s what made it rich.
NP Junior: What major event can create a political crisis?
PA: There is a political crisis when citizens no longer go to vote and abstention rises. It’s a mistrust between them and the politicians. If you don’t go to vote, it means you think it’s pointless. For the referendum, we had tremendous participation, almost 80%, like in the cantonal and regional elections. People have been returning to the polls for the past 2 or 3 years. It’s very positive for democracy. Abstention is negative.
NP Junior: Regarding the Clearstream affair, if the accusations were true, would the political crisis be worse?
PA: We’re at the bottom of what we can do. Hard to do worse. That’s not what politics is about. For the past eight or ten days, this affair has been on the front page. This will continue for some time because we’ve entered a process that resembles Voici or Gala. We find ourselves in the realm of political scandal. Currently, there’s a tendency to value this in the media at the expense of commitment and political action.
NP Junior: Tell us about your blog and the choice of topics.
PA: On a blog, we have statistics of people who visit and react. We understand better the media owners who see what interests the readers. Next, either we obey a market logic to sell or a political logic, which is my case, with in-depth articles.
