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katsarisLess than half hour remains till the much touted debate between the political leaders so just enough time for me to jot some of my thoughts about it. So a mini-ramble this time.
---
This coming debate has annoyed me from its planning stages for several reasons -- and on all sides. From the side of PASOK and Papandreou the whole PR about it was an unmitigated fiasco, the "no, the smaller parties shouldn't be included" turning into "Yeah, they should" just a day before the debate itself.
From the side of ND, god, their motives are so *transparent*... The three smaller parties to be included are all leftist ones, so they wouldn't mind at all seeing them increase their influence to the loss of PASOK. It's like George W.Bush supporting 3 Naders in order to defeat Gore or Kerry.
And from the side of the smaller parties, I'm annoyed that they constantly shout about their rights in a democracy when what we will end up having is parties that represent less than 10% of the voting population using 60% of the debate time. And calling themselves equally represented.
And Tsovolas is included for some reason, even though his party isn't in the parliament. Why him and not Karatzaferis? Who knows. Atleast Karatzaferis and his far-right-wing would have broken up the monotony of three leftist parties all shouting that PASOK is right-wing...
Anyway, now that five rather than two leaders will be included in this, the reporters will clearly have no time to ask them more than 4 or 5 questions apiece -- possibly fewer. And in order to cover all the issues, the question will be so vague and wide-ranging, that the answers will be meaningless, to the point that I can pretty much predict them already.
*This* is how the debate is gonna go:
Repeat four times, and then the debate end.
--
What Papandreou should have done is throw the ball to the other people's court - given how the "minor parties" demanded representation in the debate, Papandreou should have said "okay, bring up all the minor parties - all the thirty or forty of them."
And once that's out of the way, and the minor parties appeased or having to explain about why they are *not* appeased, they should then have the actual debate with the many questions and only two participants. The leader of the governing party, the leader of the chief opposition. Simple as that...
But now the debate's gonna start, so possibly more comments afterwards.
---
EDIT:
One major element went differently than I had thought -- each of the leaders replied to individual questions, rather than each of them having to answer to the same set of questions.
This allowed the possibility for more sharper-pointed questions, less vague ones... but ofcourse the problem now became that this discussion was now perforce a very *limited* one.
My other predictions held exactly as stated: There was hardly any difference between the leaders of KKE, DIKKI, Synaspismos, and I got bored to tears of hearing the same worldview, during 60% of the time. I kept on thinking, "More Karamanlis and Papandreou please! They are the ones who *count*." And who actually made suggestions that might be actually workable, rather than just keep on repeating 'tax the rich, give it to the poor' and think that this will solve anything whatsoever beyond the first year.
As I said, the minor parties accused PASOK and ND of being identical in right-wingedness -- and as I again predicted, Karamalis ofcourse denied he was the dreaded "right-wing", and said that his party was "the middle". Predictable, predictable...
Karamanlis I think ended up the victor of this debate: Papandreou spoke vaguely at several places, and he often looked down to his papers rather than look at the camera or the reporters - bad form.
And given that ND was already some percentage points ahead, I think this debate probably loses PASOK its last chances to win the elections.
Ah, well..
---
This coming debate has annoyed me from its planning stages for several reasons -- and on all sides. From the side of PASOK and Papandreou the whole PR about it was an unmitigated fiasco, the "no, the smaller parties shouldn't be included" turning into "Yeah, they should" just a day before the debate itself.
From the side of ND, god, their motives are so *transparent*... The three smaller parties to be included are all leftist ones, so they wouldn't mind at all seeing them increase their influence to the loss of PASOK. It's like George W.Bush supporting 3 Naders in order to defeat Gore or Kerry.
And from the side of the smaller parties, I'm annoyed that they constantly shout about their rights in a democracy when what we will end up having is parties that represent less than 10% of the voting population using 60% of the debate time. And calling themselves equally represented.
And Tsovolas is included for some reason, even though his party isn't in the parliament. Why him and not Karatzaferis? Who knows. Atleast Karatzaferis and his far-right-wing would have broken up the monotony of three leftist parties all shouting that PASOK is right-wing...
Anyway, now that five rather than two leaders will be included in this, the reporters will clearly have no time to ask them more than 4 or 5 questions apiece -- possibly fewer. And in order to cover all the issues, the question will be so vague and wide-ranging, that the answers will be meaningless, to the point that I can pretty much predict them already.
*This* is how the debate is gonna go:
Papariga> PASOK is just as right-wing as ND, and Papandreou is a tool of the Americans. *insert battle-of-the-workers-stuff*
Tsovolas> What she said, except with a bit less workers and a bit more chauvinism.
Konstantopoulos> What Papariga said, except we are still trying to appear progressive, so a bit less anti-Americanism, and a bit less Stalinism.
Karamanlis> PASOK is not right-wing, they'd *wish* they were right wing. They are just confused. For that matter we are not right-wing either, we are of the "middle".
Papandreou> We are not confused, we are synthesizing. And nobody knows what ND is.
Repeat four times, and then the debate end.
--
What Papandreou should have done is throw the ball to the other people's court - given how the "minor parties" demanded representation in the debate, Papandreou should have said "okay, bring up all the minor parties - all the thirty or forty of them."
And once that's out of the way, and the minor parties appeased or having to explain about why they are *not* appeased, they should then have the actual debate with the many questions and only two participants. The leader of the governing party, the leader of the chief opposition. Simple as that...
But now the debate's gonna start, so possibly more comments afterwards.
---
EDIT:
One major element went differently than I had thought -- each of the leaders replied to individual questions, rather than each of them having to answer to the same set of questions.
This allowed the possibility for more sharper-pointed questions, less vague ones... but ofcourse the problem now became that this discussion was now perforce a very *limited* one.
My other predictions held exactly as stated: There was hardly any difference between the leaders of KKE, DIKKI, Synaspismos, and I got bored to tears of hearing the same worldview, during 60% of the time. I kept on thinking, "More Karamanlis and Papandreou please! They are the ones who *count*." And who actually made suggestions that might be actually workable, rather than just keep on repeating 'tax the rich, give it to the poor' and think that this will solve anything whatsoever beyond the first year.
As I said, the minor parties accused PASOK and ND of being identical in right-wingedness -- and as I again predicted, Karamalis ofcourse denied he was the dreaded "right-wing", and said that his party was "the middle". Predictable, predictable...
Karamanlis I think ended up the victor of this debate: Papandreou spoke vaguely at several places, and he often looked down to his papers rather than look at the camera or the reporters - bad form.
And given that ND was already some percentage points ahead, I think this debate probably loses PASOK its last chances to win the elections.
Ah, well..
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Date: 2004-02-26 03:19 pm (UTC)Ti kanei o an8rwpos gia na vgalei ton epiousio!!:P