“Politics has no place at Eurovision”declared, Friday May 10, the French minister responsible for Europe, Jean-Noël Barrot, who judges, like other European elected officials and artists, “unacceptable” THE “pressures on artists” called for a boycott against Israel during Saturday’s Eurovision final.
Israel qualified for the final of the European Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, on Thursday evening after nearly 12,000 people, including activist Greta Thunberg, demonstrated in that city against Israel’s participation. Joost Klein, the representative of the Netherlands in the competition, who had expressed his disagreement Thursday evening at being placed next to the Israeli candidate, Eden Golan, was deprived of a dress rehearsal, the organization citing a ” incident “ without further details.
Israel’s participation is also contested by the far-left Sumar party (whose leader, Yolanda Diaz, is number three in the Spanish government), which launched a petition on Friday to request the country’s exclusion from the final. On the contrary, according to French Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, interviewed by the daily Release : “At a time when creative freedom is under threat throughout the world, Europe must continue to defend, loud and clear, this essential principle of democracy”he stressed.
“In the particular case of Eurovision, these pressures are contrary to the spirit of the competition, whose motto is “United by music” and which aims to bring together the people of Europe, and beyond, around artistic creation, singing. This is what must remain at the heart of the competition”he insists.
A theoretically apolitical competition
Israel is represented by Eden Golan, 20, and Israeli public broadcaster KAN, with the song Hurricane. The organizers of Eurovision had not validated his first song October rainwidely seen as an overly political reference to the bloody attack by the Islamist group Hamas in Israel on October 7, which sparked the deadly war in Gaza.
“Calls for a boycott against the participation of Israeli artists” in Malmo “like everywhere in Europe (…) are totally unacceptable”also wrote onthe German Minister of Culture, Claudia Roth.
Eurovision regulations provide that the competition remains apolitical: “All participating broadcasters (…) must ensure that the Eurovision Song Contest is in no way politicized and/or instrumentalized and/or discredited in any way. » The claimed neutrality of the show was shaken up on Tuesday by Swedish singer Eric Saade, who appeared with his arm girded by a Palestinian keffiyeh. “People must express their opinions, people must boycott”said Magnus Bormark, candidate for Norway, who called for a lasting ceasefire with eight other participants.