Elephant round

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Elephant round of the Swiss party presidents in the run-up to the Federal Council elections 2011. V. l. From right: Ueli Leuenberger (Greens), Christian Levrat (SP), Christophe Darbellay (CVP), Fulvio Pelli (FDP, Liberals), Christoph Mörgeli (SVP, representing Toni Brunner ), Hans Grunder (BDP, hidden by the moderator Markus Gilli ).

A debate on television , in which the chairmen of the political parties represented in parliament take part , is called an elephant round. The expression was created in Germany and is intended to express the "weightiness" of the people taking part and emphasize the importance of the occasion for the discussion. The word was later taken up in Austria and Switzerland and is currently in use there, but overall it has no uniform meaning.

Germany

Since 1969, TV roundtables have traditionally been held on election evenings (especially in the Bundestag ) with the top politicians of the parties represented in the Land and Bundestag on the public broadcasters Das Erste and ZDF .

After a first attempt to broadcast an elephant round on election evening in 1965 failed, there was an elephant round before the Bundestag election from the 1969 Bundestag election. This broadcast, broadcast live by ARD and ZDF at the same time - its official name was three days before the election - also took place before the federal elections in 1972 , 1976 , 1980 , 1983 and 1987 . It was not limited in time and lasted more than four hours in 1976. The elephant round as part of the election campaign was no longer broadcast after 1987, the incumbent Chancellor Helmut Kohl had refused in 1990, 1994 and 1998 to take part in such a round table before the federal election. Since the federal election in 2002 there has been a television duel instead , which has also preoccupied the Federal Constitutional Court , the candidates for chancellor of the two popular parties, the CDU and SPD . In addition, a few days before the federal election there was a discussion round in the ARD program in 2005 with the top candidates of all parties represented in the Bundestag, which, however, was limited in time compared to the old programs up to 1987 and was less publicly perceived than the television duel. A comparable planned broadcast failed in 2009 due to the unwillingness of the CDU and SPD chancellor candidates to participate. On Thursday before the federal election of 2013 by ARD and ZDF broadcast in parallel, was limited to 90 minutes found Berliner Runde , attended by prominent politicians of the five then attended parties represented in the Bundestag, but not the top candidate .

What remained is the elephant round after the federal elections, in which the party leaders usually analyze the outcome of the election and which is broadcast simultaneously by ARD and ZDF. Such a round of talks also takes place after state elections with the general secretaries or federal managers of the parties in the Bundestag. This is broadcast alternately by ARD and ZDF. The official name of the program is Berliner Runde (until 1999 Bonner Runde ).

Occasionally, an informal , non-public consultation round of the party chairmen of the governing parties CDU, CSU and FDP in Helmut Kohl's cabinet was referred to as the “elephant round”. This term referred to the physical form of the politicians Kohl, Strauss and Genscher. These meetings were - like the “ kitchen cabinet ” occupied by confidants - typical of Helmut Kohl's government style. They prepared important decisions and resolved disputes outside of the official platforms (such as the Bundestag, Mediation Committee, etc.). The meetings of the group made up a large part of the media coverage, but they lost their importance after the death of Franz Josef Strauss .

Switzerland

In Switzerland, a meeting or discussion of the party presidents of the four Federal Council parties ( SP , CVP , FDP and SVP ) is traditionally called an "elephant round ". After the referendum results and election results have been announced, Swiss television and Swiss radio DRS each invite you to a highly regarded elephant round, at which the party presidents analyze the result with its causes and consequences. Sometimes there is also a round of elephants in the TV political program Arena .

When the first results were announced after the national elections in 2011 , the party presidents of the GLP and the BDP also took part for the first time , as a result of the expanded party landscape, which in 2011 suffered massive losses from the five largest parties (SVP, SP, FDP, CVP , Greens) and the growth of the new parties GLP and BDP. Recently, the Greens have also been invited from time to time .

Austria

In Austria, the term “elephant round” was finally established with the 2006 National Council election . It is used to describe the television discussion of the top candidates of all campaigning parties represented in parliament, which takes place a few days before a National Council election. This confrontation, broadcast on ORF , is preceded by discussions of the top candidates by two parties, which are referred to as “TV confrontation”, “election confrontation” or “TV duel”. In 2006, the official title of the final round of the TV election campaign was: Discussion of the top candidates - The Elephant Round .

Since the representatives of other political groups standing for a National Council election are excluded from this broadcast, but they have also been represented in a dedicated discussion program since 2006, the joke names “Elephant Round” have been used as a counterpart to the “elephant round” - in addition to the official program title. Mückenrunde "(2006) and" Ameisenrunde "(2008) are used.

For the first time in the 2016 federal presidential election , discussions with all candidates were referred to as the “elephant round”.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Elefantenrunde  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Elephants' roundtable: A very German election-night ritual . In: POLITICO . September 24, 2017 ( politico.eu [accessed September 24, 2017]).
  2. ^ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Fights for the Chancellery. 60 years of federal elections. 6 DVD set with booklet, Berlin 2012.
  3. www.bundestag.de ( Memento of the original from July 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundestag.de
  4. BVerfG , judgment of August 30, 2002, Az .: 2 BvR 1332/02