Danish People’s Party’s Anders Vistisen, who describes himself as the ‘watchdog of the Danes’ in Brussels, is significantly absent in the daily work of the European Parliament. An analysis conducted by TV 2, based on minutes from meetings in the EU committees where Danish parliamentarians running for re-election sit, reveals that Vistisen has only attended less than every 13th committee meeting. In comparison, Venstre’s Morten Løkkegaard and the Social Democrats’ Niels Fuglsang have attended around half of the meetings in their respective committees. In total, Vistisen has been absent for 128 out of 138 meeting days in the committees he is a member of. Dorte Sindbjerg Martinsen, professor and EU expert at the University of Copenhagen, highlights the importance of committee work as a central part of the parliamentarians’ work. She points out that lack of participation can lead to a loss of influence. However, Vistisen rejects this assessment and claims that committee work is not important.
Despite his lack of presence, Vistisen is active on Facebook, where he often posts about his work in the European Parliament. In the first three months of the year, he has been absent for 14 committee days but has still made posts about his work on 13 of those days. For example, on February 14th, he commented on the adoption of nine migration- and asylum-related legal acts in the LIBE committee, even though, according to the minutes, he did not attend the meeting. Vistisen explains to TV 2 that his absence is due to his participation in the leadership of the ID Group, of which the Danish People’s Party is a part. However, this is contradicted by the group’s website, which shows that the leadership consists of a chairman and a vice-chairman, neither of whom is Anders Vistisen.