Following the scandal of the jury vote from Eurovision this year, the Romanian broadcaster TVR is still threatening the EBU. They have started to consider withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest and now, they want to sue them. TVR conducted an internal analysis and wants to clarify the situation.
They aren’t done yet though. Back to the scandal. A few weeks ago, at the end of the 66th edition of Eurovision, the EBU pointed out 6 countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino concerning “irregular voting”. Indeed, these 6 six juries gave points to each other, and they were accused of cheating.
But other countries such as Sweden, Belgium and Australia exchanged their points between each other, but they haven’t been condemed by the EBU. As a consequence, the six delegations denounced the EBU of not being fair and spoke about a “non-transparent” algorithm.
The EBU responded that “The pattern in question was detected as irregular by the pan-European Voting Partner and acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor, as five of these six countries were ranked outside the Top 8 by the juries in the 15 other countries voting in the same Semi-Final (which included three of the Big Five: Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom). Additionally, four of the six countries were ranked in the Bottom 6 of the other 15 countries voting in this Semi-Final. A jury voting pattern irregularity of such a scale is unprecedented.”
After that, TVR published a statement concerning a possible withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest, mentioning the unfair treatement they have experienced.
“TVR disapproves of the way in which the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) handled the situation generated by the votes of the national juries during the semifinals and the final of the Eurovision 2022 competition votes were divided in a way that raised suspicions. While some countries have been penalized, the jurors’ votes have been replaced by EBU votes – through a so-called non-transparent “algorithm”, which in turn raises suspicions – for others no sanctions have been applied. Worse, they received additional points, directed by the EBU on behalf of the penalized countries.”
For now, the Romanian broadcaster doesn’t want to give up the argument, as head of TVR, Dan Turturică, mentions:
“No, I’m not giving up on the idea of prosecuting them, we are still working very hard on this analysis of the rules to see where they really went wrong, where the rules should have required them to come to the Member States must report a irregular situation, but at the same time we have to do it very carefully and above all in a very cerebral way, especially since the emotions of those moments have dissipated, so that we can really obtain a remedy, but without ruining our relationship with the EBU.”
Could this polemic tarnish the contests reputation and affect its credibility once for all? Let’s hope the impact to be the least worse possible.
How do you think this will end? Will Romania withdraw? Will Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, and San Marino act the same way? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
