Scandal at the ESC: Ebu checks controversial coordination rules!

Die EBU prüft die Abstimmungsregeln des ESC 2025 nach politischen Bedenken. Yuval Raphael belegte in Basel den zweiten Platz.
The EBU checks the coordination rules of the ESC 2025 according to political concerns. Yuval Raphael took second place in Basel. (Symbolbild/DNAT)

Scandal at the ESC: Ebu checks controversial coordination rules!

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) took place in Basel at the weekend, in which Israeli singer Yuval Raphael took second place. The victory went to the Austrian JJ. Fortunately, Raphael received the most public votes, but the national jurors rated their performance significantly less. These divergences in the allocation of votes have led to massive discussions about the fairness of the voting system. According to Kleine Zeitung have several television stations, including RTVE, already applications for checking the televotes announced.

rtve said that the voting process could possibly have been politically influenced by the continued conflict in the Gaza Strip. However, the ESC director Martin Green emphasized that the voting and its evaluation were protected by multi-stage security measures. The committee of the European Radio Union (EBU) will take on the topic and in particular check the rule that allows it to submit up to 20 votes per end device.

review of the voting rules

The EBU plans not only to analyze the coordination rules, but also to advertise the regulations that candidates can use. These campaigns, which are currently legally permissible, have raised questions about fairness in the past. Martin Green pointed out that so far there is no evidence of a disproportionate influence on the competition, but the EBU intends to develop new regulations in order to prevent possible mobilization of certain population groups. This is particularly relevant in view of the audience for Yuval Raphael, who generated attention through her appearance as survivors of the Hamas attack.

The EBU will take the feedback from the various channels seriously and incorporate into the exams. Other aspects of the voting procedures that have been adapted several times in recent years to ensure transparency and fairness will also be part of this review. The established rules regulate, among other things, the eligibility to participate of the songs, the voting system and the values ​​of the competition. These regulations should help the ESC to remain a fair and non-politicized competition, as described on the Wikipedia page on the subject.

As part of the competition, which has been taking place annually since 1956, each participating country submits an original song that is performed live. The audience is coordinated by televoting and a jury from music professionals. Proven procedures are used in the allocation of points that ensure that the integrity of the competition is maintained. This includes, for example, measures against possible manipulations and a transparent presentation of the voting results as part of a special voting section of the competition.

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OrtBasel, Schweiz
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