Despite EBU’s “generous” attempts to keep apostate the character of the European song competition, they finally did not address grumbling and division with underlying political motives, not so much during the time, but due to the results announced and brought to the second place, Rise “, a result that many participating countries openly challenge, implying that” something rotten in the kingdom “of the competition, as Shakespeare had written.
The reason is that while receiving only 60 points from the jury, it scored 297 points from the public, the highest score in Televoting, raising its total score to 357 points.
It should be noted that the disapproval was not missing when the Israeli spokesman was singing on the stage of Basel. Crowds of the audience “yuchare” Yuval Raphael, while two people tried to approach her and were forcibly removed.
There had also been protests demanding boycott of the competition, as well as an open letter signed by 4,000 musicians, artists and music industry professionals from five Scandinavian countries, condemning Israel’s participation in the competition.
What else happened before Saturday of the competition
As he points out, the, a few days before the final of the competition, rumors of the outcome of the outcome began to circulate on social media, as a strange phenomenon was observed, with Norway spectators trying to vote in favor of Croatia, to receive you! You can vote 20 times, so if you liked the contestant, you can vote again. “
The organizers recognized the problem, but argued that the mission of the wrong message did not affect the outcome, as all votes were normally recorded.
On the same days, thousands of social media users across Europe reported that they were bombarded by advertising messages calling them to vote for the song number 4 to 20 times as much as the permitted limit. The messages were made minimal or no reference to that the number corresponded to Israel. The hashtag “Vote #04, Vote 20 Times” and the slogan became viral, with the campaign causing severe division.
On the one hand, supporters of Yuval Raphael considered it a support for a victim of a terrorist attack, as the singer survived the Nova Festival of 2023 and on the other critics denounced Eurovision politicization and directed propaganda, stressing that the contest should be based on the contest.
Appeals examine Spain and Belgium
Spanish and Belgian public broadcasting expressed serious reservations about the outcome, while Pedro Sanchez called for Israel’s exclusion from the competition, for reasons of “solidarity with the Palestinian people living the absurdity of war and bombings”.
“We cannot have double measures and weights in terms of culture,” the Spanish prime minister said, noting that if Russia was excluded after the invasion of Ukraine, no Israel should be involved. “I don’t think it was shocked when we demanded Russia’s exclusion from international events, including, as we saw on the weekend of Eurovision.”
On Saturday, Spain’s public television defied the organization to which Eurovision belongs to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which had warned it to stop references to the attack on Gaza, threatening to impose sanctions and conveyed a message of support to the Palestinians.
“When it comes to human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine, “he was written in black on a black background from the RTVE broadcasting network in Spanish and English, just seconds before the official launch of the competition.
Spain’s state broadcaster message ahead of Eurovision contest tonight in response to EBU’s threat to fine them after they remembered the more than 50,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Bravo!
– Leyla Hamed (@LYLADALED)
In April, RTVE had asked the competition organizers, the EBU, a debate on Israel’s presence at Eurovision due to concerns about the Gaza situation.
In a latest development, according to the Daily Mail, Spanish public television is considering sending a request to the EBU for a comprehensive review of the public vote of the well -known televoting. So does the Belgian VRT for complete transparency in terms of telephone.
Major broadcasters accuse Eurovision of vote-rigging after Israel’s controversial performance came second
– Daily Mail (@dailymail)
It is recalled that Israel only lost to Austria’s JJ, which received 436 points for the song “Wasted Love”, with Belgium and Spain giving 12 to both to the public vote, although their committees did not give a single point.
Especially in Belgium, elements from Flemish Broadcasting VRT show 10 times more votes in this year’s final than last year.
Two years ago, when Eurovision was held in Liverpool, six times more Belgian votes were received for the final compared to the semifinals. This was also the last year so far Belgium had reached the final. The difference in Flemish television numbers between the two nights, with Gustaph as a participant, was about 300,000 (1 versus 1.3 million).
Last year, when the competition was held in Malmme, the turnout of voters was fivefold. However, the final attracted fewer spectators than the semifinals in which Mustii was eliminated (1 million versus 860,000).
At this year’s event in Basel, the differences are even more extreme. Not only did the final watched proportionally less than the semifinals with Red Sebastian (910,000 versus 660,000), but almost 10 times more votes were taken in the final, 220,554 in total.
The organizer of the competition, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), confirmed that Spain’s and Belgium broadcasting had contacted them and insisted that it had taken the complaints “seriously”.
Katia Sigers, a Belgian MP, said: “A system in which anyone can cast up to 20 votes is a system that encourages manipulation. Whether this manipulation has occurred in our country and in all other participating and non -participating countries must be investigated. ” At the same time, he estimated that “VRT must take a leading role in the demand of this research. And in conducting the debate on the telephone system within the EBU and the participation of Israel. “
Martin Green, director of Eurovision, noted: “It is important to emphasize that the voting process for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and the result of each country is controlled and verified by a huge group of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular standards.”
