The European Far-Right is Left Out of the Presidential Debate

On Tuesday, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the far-right parties Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) will not participate in the pre-election debate for the European Parliament elections on June 9.

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On May 23, the Eurovision Debate will take place in the European Parliament's hemicycle with the participation of German Ursula von der Leyen (European People's Party), Luxembourger Nicolas Schmit (Party of European Socialists), Italian Sandro Gozi (Renew Europe), German Terry Reintke (Greens), and Austrian Walter Baier (European Left).

ID candidate Andreas Vistisen will not participate given that his party did not officially designate a lead candidate to head its list. No ECR representative will participate either.

"As happened in 2014 and 2019, the Eurovision Debate is a forum for the lead candidates for the position of president of the European Commission," the European Broadcasting Union said in explaining the reasons why Vistisen was not selected.

"The invitations sent to the parties of the seven political groups of the European Parliament made this clear. Five parties responded and nominated a lead candidate. Two parties, ECR and ID, declined to nominate a lead candidate and therefore rendered themselves ineligible for this debate," it added.

The lead candidate system for European elections foresees that the candidate to preside over the European Commission, nominated by the European heads of state and government, will come from the shortlist proposed by the European parties before the electoral campaign.

In this way, it seeks to reinforce the legitimacy of the position and ensure that voters have seen that person in debates and campaign events. This non-binding system was already used in 2014, when the candidate of the European People's Party (EPP), Jean-Claude Juncker, was nominated as president of the European Commission.

In 2019, however, the European leaders ignored the names proposed by the parties and proposed Von der Leyen, who had not campaigned and was relatively unknown in Brussels.

This year, Von der Leyen is the EPP candidate, which does not guarantee her nomination or that the system will have been respected if she is elected EC president.