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Elephants’ roundtable: A very German election-night ritual

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When polls close after Germany’s general election Sunday night, there won’t just be one elephant in the room — there will be six.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her main challengers will gather for a live TV discussion, known as the “Elephants’ Roundtable” because of the heavyweight status of the participants. It’s an event that’s become an election-night institution and airs on both national public television stations.

This is the moment of truth — the artifice of the election campaign is stripped away and politicians sit opposite each other for the first time since the polls closed in a spartan TV studio to review the result and make declarations on what should happen next.

Despite the low-key setting, sparks have flown in these encounters over the years — and they will certainly do so again this year as the far-right Alternative for Germany is expected to take part for the first time.

The broadcast will give a first taste of how the established parties will deal with the far right’s arrival in Berlin. The Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens, in particular, revved up their attacks on the AfD in the weeks leading up to the election. They’re not likely to back down now. Equally, parties could opt for the strategy they routinely practice in state parliaments — ignore the far right and hope they lose their momentum in the daily grind of parliamentary work.

On election night, networks present a dizzying, improvised mix of speeches, interviews and analysis. But once the roundtable gets underway, a sense of focus sets in.

Conceived in the 1960s, the Elephants’ Roundtable was initially a pre-election TV format — U.S. presidential debates adapted for the German multiparty system. But since 1990, when former Chancellor Helmut Kohl refused to take part in pre-election TV debates, the roundtable became a hallmark of the election after-party.

The legendary roundtables from the 1970s — helped by a media environment that offered few alternatives — were known for open-ended discussions with little to no interference by moderators.

And even in an election year where campaigns lacked real substance or controversy, the elephants’ roundtable will remain a TV ritual with a distinctive flavor.

On election night, networks present a dizzying, improvised mix of speeches, interviews and analysis. But once the roundtable gets underway, a sense of focus sets in. The studio — closed off from any live audience — blocks out the noise of the hubbub outside.

Then the party leaders conduct a collective public post-mortem. Bare numbers are transformed into political realities: Who won? Who lost? Which parties are able (and willing) to form a coalition?

Usually, the style of discourse is civil, but things can get contentious quickly, particularly when incoming results are inconclusive.

In anticipation of this year’s edition, here are some of the most legendary moments of Elephants’ Roundtables past, in reverse chronological order.

2005: Schröder loses — but claims victory

In 2005, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder lost the vote by a small margin. But to everyone’s surprise, a self-congratulatory Schröder claimed he would stay in office. He supported his claim with bizarre arithmetic. The real result, he argued, was not in the vote count but in how much better his party fared compared to the pre-election polls.

His opponents were stunned. The liberals’ Guido Westerwelle suggested the chancellor may have had a drink or two before the broadcast. First-time candidate Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats (CDU) was visibly irritated but concluded pointedly: “We’ve won. And after a couple of days of reflection, the Social Democrats will realize that too.”

2002: Turning tide

In 2002, things had gone rather differently — exit polls indicated a loss for Schröder’s coalition with the Greens. Backstage before the program started, Schröder told moderators: “So what if I lost? That’s democracy.” Accordingly, the moderators treated conservative candidate Edmund Stoiber as the winner.

During the broadcast, incoming results swayed back and forth. Ultimately, the incumbent — who had been ready to admit defeat — landed a small majority and stayed in office.

1987: First female elephant

In 1987, the first female participant, Jutta Ditfurth of the Green Party, made it clear from the start that she was ready to rattle the cage. The otherwise all-male cast accused her of being too aggressive. Martin Bangemann of the liberal Free Democrats went a little too far: “Being polemical makes you ugly.” When the discussion turned to a women’s quota in politics, Kohl told her: “When it comes to speaking time, I believe you can’t complain about the quota.” Legend has it that Kohl decided not to attend another pre-election debate because of Ditfurth’s spirited performance.

1976: Marathon of insults

In 1976, the pre-election roundtable featured three of the most hard-edged debaters in West German political history: Franz-Josef Strauß of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, Christian Democrat Kohl and then-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democrats. The result was a four-hour grudge match full of withering insults. An all-black background gave the protagonists a dramatic screen presence. Strauß and Kohl went on the attack. Schmidt, cigarette in hand and appearing to drink alcohol, brushed them off with unapologetic arrogance.

Exhausted, moderator Heinz Werner Hübner proclaimed: “Gentlemen, never before has politics been discussed on TV so extensively.” Kohl’s reply: “It’s part of democracy to have to suffer one another.”

1965: Four empty chairs and a lone bottle of wine

The very first Roundtable got off to a bad start. The candidates did not make it to the TV studio. Moderator Werner Höfer presented the audience with four empty seats. On the table was a full bottle of wine and four empty glasses. “We wanted to demonstrate how parliamentary democracy manifests itself. Hard fights during the campaign, but reasonable discussion afterward. Tonight, it didn’t work,” Höfer said.

Tim Albrecht is a freelance writer based in Bonn, Germany. 


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