Dutch majority wants the Netherlands to boycott Eurovision over Joost Klein treatment
In just over a week, Dutch public broadcaster AvroTros has to announce whether the Netherlands will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland next year. An estimated 58 percent of people living in the Netherlands do not want the country to enter the competition after Joost Klein’s disqualification this year, RTL Nieuws found in a survey of its news panel.
“The discussions are still ongoing at the moment,” Eric Dekker of AvroTros told Editie NL when asked about whether the Netherlands will participate. The television company previously said the Netherlands may skip next year’s edition due to the Klein controversy.
“We are taking everything into consideration, and we will not make any statements until a decision has been made,” Dekker said. AvroTros has until September 15 to make a decision.
Only 24 percent of Dutch think the Netherlands should send an entry this year, according to RTL’s survey. About 58 percent say no, and the remaining 18 percent have no opinion on the matter.
“As much as it hurts me to say it, I hope we don’t participate just to make a statement,” said Katja Zwart, a Eurovision fan and a podcast producer at the Telegraaf. In an interview with EditieNL, she said, “What happened is not nothing, we were wrongly disqualified while we had scored high. You can’t undo that, but the EBU has to come up with something to make up for this.”
Klein was disqualified after he allegedly made a threatening movement toward a camerawoman after his semi-final performance during this year's competition in Malmö, Sweden. This caused the woman to flinch and damage her camera.
A criminal investigation was launched, but the Swedish prosecutor dropped the case against Klein after investigators were unable to uncover conclusive evidence that Klein made the gesture with the intent of causing serious fear. The camerawoman said she will not appeal appeal against the decision. This put an official end to the investigation.
