A European election TV debate between the centre-right Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and the far-right’s rising star Thierry Baudet has been criticised as a “sham” and prompted a full-page newspaper advert calling for voters to ignore it.

The past week of the European elections campaign in the Netherlands has been dominated by the run-up to a presidential-style clash ill-fitting to the country’s fragmented political system.

The starting gun had been fired when Rutte, the leader of the conservative VDD party, who is not standing to be an MEP, tweeted a video in which he made a direct approach to Baudet, the flamboyant head of the populist Forum for Democracy (FvD): “You and me, one against one, live on TV. What is your answer. Yes or no?”

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Behind-the-scenes negotiations over the debate had in reality been taking place for days by the time of the challenge. Rutte’s video, and the following days of posturing by the two men on social media, have been seen as part of a staged plan to publicise the programme being aired on Wednesday evening by the public broadcaster NPO.

Baudet had stoked controversy ahead of the debate with the publication of an essay on the works of the French writer Michel Houellebecq, in which he questioned the the “liberated status of women”, asking: “What happens when they hit 30? If they continue to work full hours, building a family becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible.”

On Wednesday morning, the Dutch grassroots movement DeGoedeZaak paid for an advert across the back of the free Metro newspaper, appealing to viewers to “let Rutte and Baudet talk, then we vote for another climate”.

Jurjen van den Bergh, the director of DeGoedeZaak, said he had been inundated by members who wanted to try to change the narrative of a debate that had become monopolised by “horse trading” between two parties of the right rather than issues such as the climate crisis.

Rutte has said he wants to challenge the FvD over its championing of the Netherlands leaving the EU, known as Nexit, a policy from which Baudet’s party has publicly backed down in recent months given the split among its supporters in the light of the UK’s troubles with Brexit.

Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister who is the vice-president of the European commission and the socialist lead candidate for commission president, questioned the relevance of the programme.

He said: “How do you help voters to make up their mind with a debate between the right and the far right on Nexit, which is something nobody wants anyway?

“These elections are about what is at stake in the next five years: a European fight against climate change and for equality and social justice, including the need to finally tax big tech.”

The leader of the GreenLeft, Jesse Klaver, described the debate as a “sham fight” between parties with similar attitudes and concerns have been raised about the unfair advantage being handed to the two rightwing parties on the eve of the election.

Polls suggest Baude’s party and Rutte’s VVD are level pegging in the polls on or around 15% with GreenLeft, Christian Democratic Appeal and the Dutch Labour party (PvdA) just behind on around 13%. Even combined, the VVD and FvD do not attract 40% of the national vote.

Prof Claes de Vreese, of Amsterdam University, said the “bizarre” debate promised to be a “win-win” for the two rightwing parties and there were questions to be asked about the wisdom of the broadcaster’s decision to hold it.

“It has created a classic US presidential or British-style debate between two parties when it is not relevant to Dutch politics or the European elections,” he said.