Danish MEP Anders Vistisen confirmed to Agence Europe on Friday 8 March that he would represent the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy (ID) group in pre-election debates.
“I am participating in the leading candidate debates as a representative of ID”, he explained.
He will take part in a debate on 29 April in Maastricht to which ID has been invited, having been appointed by the group to represent it, according to an ID official.
“We believe it is important to be present at the debates, even though we fundamentally disagree with the federalist sentiment behind them. But we know that our expected success in the elections will make us the topic of the debates and we would rather be talked to than about”, explained Mr Vistisen, adding that ID’s political objectives, “shared by millions of citizens across the continent”, deserved to be heard.
Mr Vistisen reiterated ID’s opposition to the term ‘lead candidate’ (‘Spitzenkandidat’), considering it to be “a hypocritical attempt to label what in reality is a power grab to infringe on the Member States’ right to pick the Commission President”.
Mr Vistisen, aged 36, from the ‘Dansk Folkeparti’ party, is a member of the ID group in the European Parliament, but not of the European ‘Identity and Democracy’ party. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)