{"id":7888,"date":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/7888\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:19:07","slug":"after-eurovision-final-dismay-that-politics-didnt-play-a-bigger-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/7888\/","title":{"rendered":"After Eurovision Final, Dismay That Politics Didn\u2019t Play a Bigger Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politics has no place in the Eurovision Song Contest<\/a>, or so declares a fundamental rule of the glittery international competition.<\/p>\n

But there are no rules forbidding the contest\u2019s politicalization after the fact.<\/p>\n

This week, after Bulgaria won a surprising victory at the annual Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, the director of Moldova\u2019s public broadcaster resigned because his country\u2019s jury had awarded neighboring Romania only three points, instead of the maximum of 12. In Poland, two lawmakers publicly complained that their country\u2019s Eurovision act had not received any points from Ukraine, suggesting a lack of gratitude from an ally.<\/p>\n

The implication in both episodes was that political alliances, and not simply the quality of performance, should play a role in the voting. One politician in Poland, for instance, seemed eager to remind Ukraine that without his country\u2019s assistance, \u201cthere would be no independent Ukraine today.\u201d<\/p>\n

In truth, Eurovision, which was first held in 1956 and this year included votes from 35 countries, has long been tinged with politics. In 1969, Austria boycotted the contest because the host nation, Spain, was under a dictatorship. In 2022, Russia was barred from participating after it invaded Ukraine, which would win Eurovision that year. This year, five countries boycotted the competition in protest over Israel\u2019s inclusion<\/a>, as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepened. (This year, Israel took second place.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese scandals are nothing new,\u201d Dean Vuletic, the author of a book on the political history of Eurovision, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Vuletic dated the idea that political alliances influence Eurovision to at least the 1960s \u2014 \u201cwhen the Nordic countries complained that the Francophone countries voted for each other\u201d \u2014 even if organizers had long aimed to prevent such bloc voting.<\/p>\n

Still, he added, referring to Moldova, \u201cit is rather surprising that the head of television would resign because of something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs the contest, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Eurovision\u2019s winner is determined by adding up two sets of points: those awarded by the national juries from the participating countries and those based on votes from viewers at home during a nail-biting 40 minutes after the final performance.<\/p>\n

Margarita Druta, Moldova\u2019s presenter who announced the points from her country\u2019s national jury on Saturday, later said in a video on social media that she had been shocked by Moldova\u2019s score for Romania, which finished third in the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still shaking,\u201d she said, \u201cand I can\u2019t get over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans also took to social media to complain, and the backlash led Vlad Turcanu, the director Moldova\u2019s public broadcaster, Teleradio-Moldova, to announce his resignation on Monday.<\/p>\n

Turcanu said that while the broadcaster distanced itself from the jury\u2019s score, it still took responsibility. \u201cOur stance toward Ukraine is not one of zero points,\u201d he said. \u201cOur feeling toward Romania can only be one of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Poland, two politicians expressed similar dismay with the outcome, saying that they were surprised to see that Ukraine had awarded their country\u2019s act zero points. (Poland finished 12th.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were in Ukraine\u2019s place, I would consider whether to appreciate Poland for helping them maintain their independence,\u201d Przemys\u0142aw Czarnek, a right-wing politician, told reporters during a news conference.<\/p>\n

Tobiasz Bochenski, a right-wing member of the European Parliament, said in a radio interview on Monday that Poland\u2019s diplomatic relationship with Ukraine and Israel should now be rethought.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that our vocalist received zero points from both Ukraine and Israel is something scandalous,\u201d he said. \u201cThis should give many people food for thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vuletic, the author, called the appeals for alliances to be renewed or realized \u201cquite strange.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Jordan, a researcher who calls himself \u201cDr. Eurovision,\u201d said politics had seemed to seep into Eurovision more often in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes a farce of the competition,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes a mockery of the juries who do good work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrada Lautaru and Zuzanna Piekarska contributed translation help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Politics has no place in the Eurovision Song Contest, or so declares a fundamental rule of the glittery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6591,6590,619,3250,9,4914,6589,127,6592],"class_list":["post-7888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-european-broadcasting-union","tag-eurovision-song-contest","tag-israel","tag-moldova","tag-poland","tag-politics-and-government","tag-pop-and-rock-music","tag-ukraine","tag-vlad-turcanu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}