Three key moments from the first debate with lead EU candidates

euronews (in English)

The lead candidates in the European elections faced off against each other in the first debate of the race, haggling over the Green Deal, the Israel-Hamas war, irregular migration, artificial intelligence and TikTok, among others.

Transcript

00:00 It was all against von der Leyen in the first debate held in Maastricht ahead of the European

00:06 elections.

00:07 Seven candidates for the helm of the Commission and the current president of the EU executive

00:12 arm tried to win over voters before the June ballot.

00:15 The pressure was intense for von der Leyen with barbs from left and right.

00:19 The EPP candidate didn't deny a possible after-election collaboration with the hard right-wing political

00:25 party ECR.

00:27 "The European Parliament that has to find majorities.

00:36 It depends very much on how the composition of the Parliament is and who is in what group."

00:42 "Values and rights cannot be divided according to some political arrangements.

00:49 Either you can deal with the extreme right because you need them or you say clearly there

00:57 is no deal possible because they do not respect the fundamental rights our Commission has

01:04 fought for."

01:05 But von der Leyen was not the only one to feel the pressure.

01:10 The candidate from the far-right Identity and Democracy Party was also in the spotlight.

01:16 "All the problems that we're seeing now with Russia buying influence to the AfD, it's your

01:22 idea group.

01:23 Maybe before you are teaching everyone, clean up your own house."

01:33 The European left's candidate, Walter Bayer, was applauded by the audience when he asked

01:38 von der Leyen about Israel.

01:39 "I avoided the question which I was asking to you.

01:42 When will the European Union put sanctions on Israel to stop the war in Gaza?"

01:48 "To see how many innocent civilians are dying, especially children, is unbearable and it

01:58 is unacceptable.

01:59 And therefore we need a ceasefire.

02:01 We need the ceasefire now.

02:03 We need the release of the hostages now.

02:06 And we need to sit down and work on a two-state solution because this is the only solution

02:10 that will bring peace to the region."

02:12 A robust enough debate tonight, particularly on some of the issues around common foreign

02:16 and defence policy, how to fund Ukraine, whether there's enough criticism by the EU of the

02:21 high death toll among civilians in Gaza, how to tackle anti-Semitism across Europe and

02:26 also the environment, how to protect the Green Deal while also answering the demands of farmers.

02:31 No doubt these issues will be thrashed out again and again over the next few weeks.

02:36 Shona Murray, Euronews, Maastricht.

02:38 The next debate of the candidates will be held on the 23rd of May in Brussels.

02:46 (Applause)

02:49 (whooshing)

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