by 1 The question that Antonis Schroiter posed to Nikos Androulakis, in the foreign policy section, was a masterpiece. What did he think of her, didn’t he? Here it is: “You have been party leader for a year and a half and you have not met the prime minister of the country. Mr. Mitsotakis says you either refuse or you don’t like it very much. The bottom line is, here’s a good debate, here you two are, let’s get to know each other, he seems like a good person, why the distance?”
2 Antonis Schroiter also asked Yanis Varoufakis a “perfect” question about the energy “footprint” of the MeRA25 leader, since in his “where do you belong” it seems that he has two cars, five engines and an outboard ! “I drive with my wife on one machine. Our cars are sitting,” he replied.
3 The debate is completely meaningless and ultimately disorienting. To understand, at one point, Mr. Mitsotakis was asked about the crime in Tempi. Obviously, he had prepared in advance, he followed a plan. So what did he do? He said a typical Tempi phrase and immediately turned it to the support of a fixed trajectory in general, starting to talk about the extension of the Athens metro and the Thessaloniki metro which is finally being completed and let say SYRIZA. He completely changed the subject within a minute and a half of replying without being allowed to take it out of context to tell her anything. The journalist did not come back with a sequel and the matter ended there. That’s why I tell you, the debate is not much.
4 Giorgos Papadakis spoke to Giorgos Liagas about his impressions the day after the debate. “It was a meaningless process for me. People ask me why I went there. When it was suggested to me, my first response was no. They told me to think about it because the station had to be performed, then I said that I shouldn’t refuse because I would cause problems. I’m not going to the next one, but I really wanted to live the experience.”
5 Rania Tzima also reflected on how the debate unfolded, describing a scene: “At one point, Mr Androulakis says ‘some people should go to jail’. And we journalists are left dumbfounded. We look at each other , next to me was Panagiotis Stathis and right next to me was Antonis Schroiter I’m shaking the cameras didn’t catch us then I say “guys are we going to do something?” shall we say something ?” Kouvaras sees me and waves “my hands are tied”. That is, a political leader comes out and says about the wiretap that someone should go to jail and we couldn’t ask him who he was talking about. If you interrupted, you risked being anti-institutional.”
6 The best question, of course, belonged to Rania Tzima and it was the one which created, with Mr. Mitsotakis’ erroneous answer, a political stake the next day: “Recognizing that there is political responsibility in the scandal of the phone tapping, because head of EYP, have you considered resigning? Mr. Dimitriadis who resigned was not the political leader of the EYP, he was not even a political figure. Have you considered doing what Johnson did in Britain, Kurtz in Austria, Nixon in the United States, Willy Brandt in Germany, or is our own democracy inferior?
7 By taking the average audiences of the debate on the channels that broadcast it (ERT1, Alpha, ANT1, Open, SKAI and Star), we see that it reached 51.5% in “dynamic audience”. Milan’s Champions League game with Inter Milan, played on Mega at the same time, scored 17.4%. Here are the individual channel numbers:
- ERT1: 17.6%
- ALPHA: 9.4%
- SKY: 9%
- OPEN: 6.3%
- ANT1: 5%
- STAR: 4.2%
8 From the satirical “Koulouri”: “According to the first opinion polls which were carried out late last night and early this morning, 81% of Greeks decided that their vote will go to Rania Tzima, whenever she decides to enter The remaining 19% remain undecided on what to vote for, while a citizen seems to have waited for the telecombat and is now fixed on the party he will choose.
9 From yesterday’s “NEON” lead article: “If the parties wanted to have a free discussion, they could have it. They didn’t want it. Is it time to take stock of the importance and the need for a debate on the parallel monologues? However, as long as the attitude of the parties does not change, as long as they insist on “soups” in the face of the possibility of a battle of gravity, the importance of public debate is depreciated, degraded. If the leaders are not ripe for a real dialogue, it is better not to suffer and to suffer.”
ten Sakis Ioannidis in “Kathimerini”: “Who does not remember the Lignadis affair and the political and social crisis it generated? The old people of the Venizelos station who divided Thessaloniki and the scientific community? The secret negotiations for the sculptures of the Parthenon with the British Museum? The fragments brought back from Sicily and the Vatican? The recent mobilizations, strikes and sit-ins of artists on the great issue of artistic education? Where will we find the money for the underground extension of the National Archaeological Museum? What will ultimately happen to Greece’s book policy? None of the above topics came up in the debate.”
