Where will this Europe go in the next five years,
in the next 10 years?
In a new world order, it will be completely
different than today.
What's killing Europe and what's hurting our societies
is indifference of well-meaning people.
They should speak up.
They should say where they stand.
Then they can shape the future.
People must know that the decisions on European level
have a direct impact in their daily life.
Do have a look and decide for yourself.
Don't let other people decide your future for you.
This was the first debate that had both the two favourites,
Manfred Weber of the centre-right EPP and Frans
Timmermans of the Party of European Socialists,
as well as some of the smaller parties,
the Liberals and the Greens.
The candidates' place on the stage was drawn by lot,
but it turned out that you had the centre-right parties,
the conservatives and the liberals on one side,
and the centre-left parties, the Socialists and the Greens,
on the other side.
And that's kind of how the debate went.
There was a pretty clear right-left divide.
Well, Manfred Weber was saying, oh, we
need a [INAUDIBLE] Europe.
Why did he vote and his group vote against exactly that
in the European Parliament?
The Socialist candidate, Mr Timmermans,
was against more co-operation on defence, for example,
on foreign policy.
And so yeah, we have to be realistic,
and he doesn't like dreams.
I think we need dreams.
We need vision.
I think the main dividing lines are
about how you go about creating more security.
I think there is a strong difference between Ska Keller,
myself on the one hand and Guy Verhofstadt and Manfred Weber
on the other hand in terms of social justice.
I'm a man of free trade.
I believe in single market.
The European single market that wants
to strengthen the single market.
I think socialists are not so clear in these fields.
It was on economics where the centre-right parties emphasised
trade, whereas the centre-left parties talked more
about tax redistribution and social justice.
Very harsh austerity agenda which
has not been leading to growth and development at all.
What I want to do is now to invest in innovation,
to have openness for trade, and we have to cut red tape.
We could also see this on security,
where both centre-right parties want
a European FBI which the left parties were more sceptical of.
Another security policy was about whether to co-operate
more on defence.
So what I think we have to do is really European army,
and I believe that it is possible.
European army of 20,000 people.
Thank you.
2024.
Why not?
Give me the list of national parliaments
who will give out of their hands the decision on sending troops
into harm's way.
Give me that list.
The candidate of the leading party that
stands to get the most votes in the election
is Manfred Weber of the EPP, but he also
seemed to have the most to defend.
He doesn't have as much experience
as some of the other candidates, especially
Frans Timmermans, the Socialist candidate, who
is sitting commissioner, vice-president
president of the Commission, and who many times attacked Weber
directly.
Timmermans, on the other hand, came across as the debater who
was most at ease with concise messages,
even though his party trails quite a lot behind the centre
right in the polls.
There are also many topics on which these candidates
are more or less in agreement.
For example, on the importance of climate
change sustainability.
Of course Ska Keller, the Green candidate,
comes with perhaps the most credibility and the most
radicalism in her proposals.
Have a CO2 price on every single CO2 tonne that's being emitted,
and then repay the income from that to each
and every single citizen.
So if you have a lower income and you
have lower CO2 emissions you will have a benefit.
You will have a big plus on your account.
If you earn more, and especially if you emit a lot of CO2,
that will not be the case.
We have to do these changes in a social acceptable way,
and we have to do it all in a way
that our industry can live with this.
And they also agreed on the seriousness
of corporate taxation and the difficulty of taxing
multinational corporations.
It is unbearable that big companies
are making billions of profits in Europe and paying no taxes.
We need to change that immediately.
Ska Keller, you are still in the lead in terms
of time discipline, so why don't you answer the question first?
... the refugee policy...
Unfortunately, we only had one woman on the podium,
and perhaps a bit stereotypically,
she was the one who kept best to her time,
whereas you had some instances of older men talking
over one another and not finishing on time.
Who won the debate?
In my own opinion, there wasn't really a clear cut winner.
Who is likely to do best in the elections
in a couple of weeks' time?
This in the end depends on you and how you vote.