European Broadcasting Union says Anders Vistisen cannot debate because the far right does not endorse the Spitzenkandidat system.
The organizer of the scandal-hit Eurovision Song Contest is facing another controversy after excluding the far right from a debate in the European Parliament next week due to disagreement over how the EU should nominate the European Commission president.
The European Broadcasting Union invited five political factions — the far left, Greens, socialists, liberals and center-right — to take part in its big debate on May 23, two weeks before the EU election, when voters will choose 720 MEPs and kick off negotiations for the most powerful jobs in the bloc’s institutions.
But neither the far-right Identity & Democracy faction — on course to be the third-largest force in the assembly, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls — nor the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists will be allowed to take part, due to their refusal to nominate an official candidate to be president of the Commission, a role currently held by Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a new term.
Sounds like the EBU is actually handling the paradox of tolerance correctly. This is good news.
Sorry, we don’t allow nazis in the playground no matter how hard they whine.
If anything like this had happened in my country, it would have backfired very badly in the following elections.
The far right always cries censorship. Fuck the far right.
Count binface beat out Britain first in the London mayoral race. We need to fix the price of croissants before it’s too late.
Silence of opposing views should never be allowed especially when they it is a significant democratic voice. Otherwise there is no way to stop it from happening to you.
If the right were doing this to the left people would be screaming fascism.
If the right doesn’t nominate a candidate, who should debate?
I always see this - people on the right crying about having the same rules applied to them as everyone else. They want the same outcome without following the same rules.
They could just choose someone to send to the debate, doesn’t have to be a candidate for the presidency.
I’m no fan of the right, but some of the rules only exist to prevent smaller alternatives from getting traction, especially in the media.
