Despite its name, the Eurovision Debate between the EU lead candidates (Spitzenkandidaten) for the job of European Commission President did not result in 'douze points' for anyone.
The candidates for five (of the seven) main European political groups debated each other on Thursday evening in what was the last big election debate before the European elections starting on 6 June.
In yesterday’s line-up were current Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen of the European People’s Party (EPP), Walter Baier for the European Left, Sandro Gozi of Renew Europe Now, Terry Reintke leading for the European Greens and Nicholas Schmidt representing the Party of European Socialists.
Absent from the debate were the rightwing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) – who had both chosen not to participate in the lead candidate system, and therefore had no candidate to put forward in the debate.
While important topics such as defence, climate and migration were covered, the biggest question in the air seemed to be how to deal with the growing far-right.
As Von der Leyen is the clear frontrunner to succeed herself as Commission President with her centre-right EPP party leading in the polls, she fielded several questions on last month's comments about being open to dealing with the ECR.
She reiterated her three red-line principles for which MEPs she would work with for the next term: "The first is pro-Europe. The second is pro-Ukraine, that is anti-Putin. And the third is indeed pro-rule-of-law."
Further clarification will have to wait until after the elections. The full run-down of what happened yesterday can be found here.
Did you watch it?
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