Der Spiegel Nr. 11, 1979, p. 7
The late 1960s to 1970s saw a renegotiation of democratic discussion practices. Overall, our paper has stressed the similarities between the Federal Republic and the Netherlands - but the Kohl episode of Bürger fragen - Politiker antworten we introduced earlier can help us to explore differences between both countries, and it also highlights the controversies over what makes a democratic debate.
In Germany, the press reactions to the show mirrored the polarized sentiments of the late 1970s regarding the leftist terrorism of the RAF and a resurgence of far-right conservatism. Conservative politicians since the mid-1970s voiced concerns that leftist voices dominated the German broadcasting system and what happened with Kohl in the show seemed to confirm their critique. The host of the show was blamed for not choosing a more representative audience. Conservative politicians such as Franz-Josef Strauß demanded the host, who was also editor in chief of the ZDF, to step down - which suited their agenda, as they had been lamenting the left-liberal predominance within German broadcasting councils for a while.
Beyond this somewhat stilted scandalization, the reactions differed to quite some extent. Some newspapers like the Hamburger Abendblatt saw a “shameful and embarrassing performance” of the Dutch audience and presenter Appel who failed to “tame” them. Citizen letters in the German press paint a quite diverse palette of reactions to the show. While many were repulsed by the open display of sympathies for leftist terrorism by the Dutch audience or the general tone of the speakers, most agreed that Kohl’s performance was unworthy of a modern-day politician. He seemed “unable to engage in dialogue”, “righteous and full of himself”. To them it was not "left-wing bullies" who turned the episode into a disaster, but Kohl's "inability" to "do justice to critical questions". Elected politicians in the spotlight, several letter-writers agreed, neither deserve nor can they expect deference from the audience. On the contrary, a true confrontation was needed to dismantle the rehearsed appearances of professional politicians.
In the Dutch press, the broadcast got a lot of attention as well, especially after the show Hier en Nu went to Germany to conduct vox pops: on-the-street interviews in which German citizens called the questions from the Dutch audience “shameless” and “inappropriate”. Similar to the German case, press responses were diverse. Interestingly, some saw the confrontation as an articulation of cultural differences particularly regarding debates, as “Kohl wants to answer questions, the Dutch want to air their opinion”. One newspaper made the somewhat exaggerated claim that “here [in the Netherlands], no one loses sleep over a somewhat harsh approach of politicians. That is part of their job”. A citizen writing in to the left-leaning newspaper Het Vrije Volk saw the uproar in Germany over Kohl’s treatment as a sign of a lack of democracy: a hard confrontation was part of the deal and the Germans needed to accept this.