On Wednesday night (10th May), the leaders of the six political parties currently in government gathered at the headquarters of ERT in Agia Paraskevi in Athens to take part in what was billed as “The Leaders’ Debate”. It was the first to be held since 2015 and was treated as a news event of first importance. Reporters crowded around the entrance to the building to glean what comments they could from the arriving party heads, while inside the building a press room had been set up for international correspondents.

The participants

Seated in order of the size of their parliamentary representation were Prime Minister and leader of Nea Dimokratia Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of the official opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance Alexis Tsipras, PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis, KKE leader Dimitris Koutsoubas, the leader of Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) Kyriakos Velopoulos, and Mera25 leader Giannis Varoufakis.

Facing them were six news anchors from the country’s independent television stations: Mara Zacharea from Star, Sia Kosioni from Skai, Giorgos Papadakis from ANT1, Antonis Sroiter from Alpha, Panagiotis Stathis from Open, and Rania Tzima from Mega. The event was moderated by ERT news anchor Giorgos Kouvaras.

The format

The format of the debate was strictly controlled. It was divided into six sections, each covering a specific topic:
– Economy, development, employment
– Foreign policy and defence
– The state, institutions, transparency
– Health, education and the welfare state
– Environment and energy
– The new generation.

The six journalists took it in turn to address one question on the topic in hand to a politician of their choice. They were allowed 30 seconds to frame the question and their interlocutor had 1.5 minutes to reply. The journalist was then allowed 15 seconds for a follow-up question and the speaker had 45 seconds to reply. The time limits were strictly enforced by the moderator to allow coverage of all the topics within the allotted time of 3 hours (including commercial breaks). Finally, each leader was allowed three minutes make a closing statement at the end of the debate.

Although there were adverse comments from some journalists and politicians on their way into the debate – Kyriakos Velopoulos said it was not going to be a debate but a “series of parallel monologues” – Mr Kouvalas pointed out in his introduction that the format had been agreed by a cross-party committee, and he appealed to the participants, both politicians and journalists, to stick to the rules.

In the event there was a high degree of compliance. Most of the leaders adhered rigorously to their time limits, no doubt having taken the view that consistently running over time would not make a good impression. While there were a few comments afterwards at the lack of any interchange between the leaders, the debate made a refreshing change in a country where any political discussion seen on TV tends to quickly degenerate into a shouting match, with interviewers and interviewees alike consistently talking over each other so that very little can be understood.

The content of the debate

The debate itself brought few surprises. Mr Mitsotakis was consistently upbeat, defending his government’s record over the past 4 years while admitting their mistakes, and sounding an optimistic note for the country’s future – under an ND majority government. The other leaders in varying degrees criticised the government while claiming that their respective policies would best serve the country’s or the people’s needs.

The most often voiced criticisms were lack of transparency (e,g. the wiretapping affair), elitism and “oikogenocracy” (rule by families), and profiteering. There seemed to be a general view among the smaller parties that privatisation, which is part of the IMF’s standard recipe for countries in financial distress, has led to the utility companies earning excess profits, thus contributing to overall inflation.

Overall, despite its shortcomings, the format allowed viewers to get an idea of each party’s views on a full range of topics which are likely to prove critical in informing people’s voting decisions on 21st May. The journalists pronounced themselves happy with the debate, saying that they sensed an openness to discussion among the leaders. However, it is not clear whether the debate will have done much to persuade the 20 per cent of voters who are still undecided which way to vote.

From some of the answers to the journalists’ questions, it seemed clear that forming a coalition will remain difficult for either of the main parties, even though current polling figures suggest that neither is likely to gain an absolute majority. For Mr Mitsotakis, the most desirable solution will probably be for a stalemate leading to a new election in July at which the leading party (which is most likely to be Nea Dimokratia) will benefit from the restored 20 to 50 seat bonus.

The full video of the debate can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3olwxqyW-w&t=203s