By Penelope Galliou

A few hours now separate viewers from the opening credits of the “much-publicized” debate of the political leaders, which will be shown tonight on public television after eight years since the last televised battle of political leaders in the country, in 2015.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Alexis Tsipras, Nikos Androulakis, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, Kyriakos Velopoulos and Yanis Varoufakis at eight in the evening they will cross the threshold of the Radio Megaros under draconian security measures and one hour later at nine in the evening they will sit together for the first time at the long table of studio “4” in the basement of the ERT building, in order to undergo the “suffering” of journalists’ questions and to contrast their views and positions.

According to ERT, the debate will be covered by 26 television cameras, which will be located outside and inside the Agia Paraskevi Radio Building. The studio, which will host the political leaders of the parliamentary parties and the six journalists, will be covered by nine cameras, while an additional nine cameras will be located in the van outside the entrance of the Radio Megaros to cover the arrivals of the political leaders and partners who will accompany them while the coverage will be enhanced with a drone, for aerial and general shots. At the same time, each political leader will accompany a camera until they enter the studio, while there will also be two “free cameras” that will record the behind-the-scenes moments of the telefight.

In addition to the coverage of the state television, there will be parallel coverage externally and by the other media, as the journalistic interest in the essence and background of the telefight is particularly high. In this context, there is also special care for hosting journalists, photojournalists and technicians who have been accredited to cover the debate, both from Greek and international media, who will be on site, much earlier in order to record everything around the debate in and out of the studio.

Inside the studio, across from the political leaders will be the six journalists who will participate in the debate and will address their questions under specific instructions and conditions, as their request for a free question to the leaders was not accepted.

The moderator of the telefight will be the journalist of ERT Giorgos Kouvaras and the journalists who will participate will be: Mara Zacharea (Star), Sia Kosioni (SKAI), Giorgos Papadakis (ANT1), Antonis Sroiter (Alpha), Panagiotis Stathis (Open) , Rania Jima (Mega).

According to information the communication staffs of the political leaders who are already working feverishly throughout the pre-election period, these days have also added the “specials” about the debate in order to cover all the “sos” of a telefight under the conditions that have been agreed upon.

The thematic sections

The debate will last three hours and will include the following 5+1 thematic sections:

1st: Economy – development – employment
2nd: Foreign policy and defense
3rd: State – institutions – transparency
4th: Health – Education – welfare state
5th: Environment – energy
6th: Free without questions, with placement of political leaders

As decided, each question will last 30 seconds and the answer 1.5 minutes with follow up from 15 seconds to 45 seconds, with a total duration of 3 minutes.

The “ace” up the sleeve of political leaders

Although the telebattle will be conducted within a predetermined framework in terms of questions and topics, the free speech at the end of the political leaders is expected to add a little more suspense to the debate with the political leaders if they are expected to choose to overemphasize the ‘weak’ point – according to them – of their opponents.

In particular, Kyriakos Mitsotakis cannot be excluded from asking for answers to the opposition’s proposal for “progressive governance”, attempting to hold accountable not only Alexis Tsipras but also all the leaders he “involves” in his scenarios and aspirations for a progressive governance.

Of particular interest will be the position of Nikos Androulakis, who for the first time will participate in a teleconference of leaders, while lately he is increasingly concerned about the role he could play in a possible cooperation government.