TV debates between politicians before elections are actually intended to highlight differences between the candidates. During the Eurovision debate on Thursday, however, the five leading candidates only exchanged verbal blows on how to deal with far-right parties. Otherwise, the differences remained rather pale – which was also because the party families of the national conservative ECR and the extreme right ID were not represented on stage in the European Parliament: They did not put forward lead candidates, which the organizing European Broadcast Union (EBU) had made a condition.