Europe - The Official Thread

A quite dramatic final. Many jury groups were clearly boycotting Israel, and the delay between the host and each jury presenter was longer than normal - I’m guessing to allow the producer to cut the link if the presenter said or did something that wasn’t allowed.

And in the end, it looked (and sounded) like the winner broke the glass trophy, no idea of it was by accident or on purpose. (Update: Watched it again, and it certainly looks like an accident.)
 
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Liquid
Israel getting 300+ votes in the televoting coupled with the outstanding booing (it really stood out) for them throughout was... quite something.

As was the producer dropping the Netherlands' 12pts for Switzerland as fast as possible to yet more tremendous booing. The Dutch RTL commentator said "**** the EBU" in an earlier live intetview on Dutch TV.
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Even the mere mention of Israel (or presence in jury votes) was met with audible boos in varying levels of intensity. Honestly, that alone is rather telling of just how unpopular Israel was in Eurovision this year, especially in a city with a large Arab-immigrant population like Malmö, and how bad of an idea it was to let Israel compete in the first place. Unless the war ends soon, I hope EBU reconsiders this decision for next year - that is, if Israel doesn't pull out first.

It'll also be interesting to see how the investigation around Joost Klein will end, whether Joost truly did assault someone or whether there was something else going on. I've seen some comments suggest that Joost was acting in self-defense (?), no clue what he would be defending against though in such case.
 
sw3g005
Even the mere mention of Israel (or presence in jury votes) was met with audible boos in varying levels of intensity. Honestly, that alone is rather telling of just how unpopular Israel was in Eurovision this year, especially in a city with a large Arab-immigrant population like Malmö, and how bad of an idea it was to let Israel compete in the first place. Unless the war ends soon, I hope EBU reconsiders this decision for next year - that is, if Israel doesn't pull out first.
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It's Israel, they never pull out of anything. They'd have to be dragged kicking and screaming, and even then they'd just accuse everyone of being anti-semitic.

As for the EBU, I imagine the whole thing has been quite effective publicity. Unless there's some sort of negative consequences for them, like a bunch of big advertisers pulling out, then I think they'll be quite happy to continue courting controversy.
 
Imari
Unless there's some sort of negative consequences for them, like a bunch of big advertisers pulling out, then I think they'll be quite happy to continue courting controversy.
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This year's sponsor was an Israeli company. There was no way they'd do anything to Israel and risk losing that cash.

Edit: More fuel for the fire. Televoting for Israel:

FB_IMG_1715513046926.jpg
 
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Imari
As for the EBU, I imagine the whole thing has been quite effective publicity. Unless there's some sort of negative consequences for them, like a bunch of big advertisers pulling out, then I think they'll be quite happy to continue courting controversy.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK Eurovision has never quite been one for reveling in controversy and would rather have things go as smoothly as possible while still being inclusive and progressive - it is after all meant to be an event that unites rather than divides people. It would be a shame if the EBU decided to let Eurovision stray away from those ideas.
Liquid
This year's sponsor was an Israeli company. There was no way they'd do anything to Israel and risk losing that cash.

Edit: More fuel for the fire. Televoting for Israel
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TIL Moroccanoil is an Israeli company. Which is weird, cuz why is it called Moroccanoil then and not... I don't know, Israelioil? And the name screams petroleum company to me, even if I know it's supposed to stand for body care oils.

As for the televoting, I was surprised that Sweden gave their 12 points to Israel given the conflict, but then it hit me: It's possible that pro-Israeli people not only voted en masse but also became overrepresented in the televote due to (some) people boycotting this year's event. No wonder then that artists opposed to Israel decided to partake in Eurovision anyway - after all, if they weren't present, then Israel would get a bigger shot at winning which is the opposite of what they would've wanted.
 
sw3g005
TIL Moroccanoil is an Israeli company.
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Good luck finding that information on their website. At the very least, Moroccanoil products are Made In Israel which is also hard to find on their website but evident on their products.
 
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Liquid
This year's sponsor was an Israeli company. There was no way they'd do anything to Israel and risk losing that cash.

Edit: More fuel for the fire. Televoting for Israel:

View attachment 1354858
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Probably 90% of all Jewish people in those countries voted for Israel. Support for them is riduculous - last year I flew a group to a rally in DC where hundreds of private yets had arrived to drop stupid rich Jewish folks and other Israel supporters to a march in the capitol.
 
Slovakia's Crime Minister, Robert Fico, has been shot at. Currently in hospital, wounded. Shooter has been arrested. Don't know what's worse for him; being shot or being taken to a Slovak hospital.
 
This comes after schools, including the one I work at, were evacuated after bomb threats were sent to them and the police recently. If Fico croaks, he'll be a martyr for the culture war brigade for centuries; one of his cronies is already blaming the left and the media.

Apparently, the shooter was a 71 year old man which... doesn't fit the profile of a lefty do-gooder.
 
The dominant theory on the trainwreck-that-keeps-wrecking-harder-and-harder formerly known as Twitter is that WHO hired the hitman.

Oh the humanity.
 
eran0004
The dominant theory on the trainwreck-that-keeps-wrecking-harder-and-harder formerly known as Twitter is that WHO hired the hitman.

Oh the humanity.
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They're just pissed he's a gay, Black man now.
 
eran0004
The dominant theory on the trainwreck-that-keeps-wrecking-harder-and-harder formerly known as Twitter is that WHO hired the hitman.

Oh the humanity.
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There are enough mafia gangsters associated with and opposed to the government that you don't need that extra step.

This current Slovak government is already trying to crack down on journalists and spice up the culture war. I'm worried that this means they're going to go double-down on it:

He lives? It's "justified".
He dies? He's a martyr.

It seems like reports are conflicting; his condition is life-threatening but Denník N, a Slovak tabloid, says that a singular injury to his abdomen and additional leg and arm injuries mean he should pull through but that seems like speculation more than an accurate prognosis.
 
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It's election day for the European Parliament. I cast my vote before work this morning, but it took me a couple of hours over the past few days to decide on my final order. There's 27 candidates running in my constituency (Ireland Midlands-Northwest), which covers half the country, and stretches from Achill Island to Carlingford Lough west-to-east, and from Malin Head to the Slieve Bloom Mountains north-to-south. It's a real mish-mash of concerns here, as some of Dublin's main "commuter belt" counties (e.g. Meath, Kildare and Louth) are included, which are currently bearing the brunt of a housing crisis that is one of the worst in Europe. As I'm typing this, there's only 192 ads for properties available to rent for under €1600 per month (half the median Irish salary) in Dublin's commuter belt, and that's including "granny flats" (converted garages with their own front doors and shoddy furniture from We Have Ikea At Home Jysk) and studio apartments.

Once you go beyond the commuter belt, rural voters are mostly concerned with agriculture. The farming lobby have been agitated about the Nature Restoration Law which was passed (after much watering down, thanks Exxon & friends) by the European Parliament this February. They've also been agitated by stricter limits on nitrate usage and agricultural run-off. The spike in energy costs is probably the biggest uniting factor between urban and rural voters after Russia ramped up their invasion of Ukraine. Generally speaking, the left have blamed profiteering by energy companies, while the right have blamed carbon taxes.

Ireland looks set to follow the anti-immigration trend that's swept the continent, as immigration has become a hot-button topic over the past 6 months, after a mass stabbing in Dublin city centre by a mentally ill (and I really do mean that instead of as a euphemism for some Da'esh ********) and homeless Algerian immigrant caused a riot that was inflamed by far-right Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp groups that popped up during Covid. These same far-right groups have egged on and committed arson attacks on buildings housing asylum seekers/refugees, or against a vacant building that they rumour is being set aside for them.

I did my part, but I have little doubt that the EPP will do a deal with ECR to copy Suella's homework.
 
DK
I did my part, but I have little doubt that the EPP will do a deal with ECR to copy Suella's homework.
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If Suella's homework had been a resounding success I might at least understand it. Even if people do link the social problems with immigration at the moment, it's not like anything Britain's done should be used as a template for anything other than what not to do.
 
MatskiMonk
If Suella's homework had been a resounding success I might at least understand it. Even if people do link the social problems with immigration at the moment, it's not like anything Britain's done should be used as a template for anything other than what not to do.
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Yeah, probably best not to copy your Home Office policy homework from the most ignorant kid in the class.
 

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