Millions of Europeans viewed the Eurovision Song Contest last Satuday. The event was said to promote ”love” and ”tolerance”, but instead ended up being a display of hate-mongering and bullying of ”the others”. Even further anti-semitic salutes were allowed to pass unnoticed.
The Russian artists were not treated as two young girls at a song contest, but as political representatives of a country currently involved in a conflict with the USA and EU. Vulgar, chauvinistic comments – reminiscant of anonymous right wing haters’ rethoric about the non-European immigrants – were uttered about the Russian artists’ clothes by the Swedish mainstream media, even before the Saturday’s broadcast. This bigoted commentary would surely have been turned into praise had the girls exposed their bossoms while shouting ”Down with Putin!”
The Tolmachevy Twins
The Russian and Belarussian score announcers were given the cold shoulder, while their Kievan conterparts were greeted a warm welcome, despite commencing their announcement with a nationalist salute closely tied to the anti-semitic, nazi, Ukrainian forces from WWII.
The semantic meaning of the salute ”Slava Ukraini” is ”Glory to Ukraine”, is only seemingly uncontroversial – though it’s interesting to see blatant appraisal and marketing of certain brands of nationalism, even on Eurosong. It is very disconcerning that the salute was launched and used during the WWII by the pro-nazi collaborators under Stepan Bandera, who were driven by a frenetic hatred for Jews, Polish, Russians and Ukrainian anti-fascists -yet no one chose to distance themselves from this ”merry” message.
One can easily compare the Ukrainian announcer’s message to Europe to the Croatian footballer Josip Simunic’s actions after a match in Croatia. He took the on-court microphone and saluted the fans with: ”For the homeland!”, to which they responded with: ”Ready!”. Much like the affiliated ”Glory to Ukraine!” this salute was launched by the pro-nazi Ustasha regime in WWII, which was noted for it’s bestial politics towards Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croatian anti-fascists. Simunic was denounced among the public on Balkans, including in Croatia, while FIFA punished him with a block-out.
Section 1, Chapter 5 of the Swedish Radio and Television Act stipulates an obligation for the journalists of the Sweden’s Television (SVT) to denounce anti-democratic and racist messages. Instead of denouncing this nationalist and anti-semtic salute the raporters chose not to react at all. Does this mean that the SVT supports anti-semitism, but only when it’s used in the geo-political struggle against Russia? Or is this just a question of appaling ignorance?
Spasoje Marjanovic, Justitia Pax Veritas
Oleg Mezjujev
Dine Malmsten
Lennart Palm
Lars Ekenryd
Jan Hagberg
Olga Stellmach
Sergei Sorokin
Nada Novovic
Ewa Strandberg
Ivan Mladenovic
Elena Turial
Violetta Anderson
Natalia Seim
Elena Shatova
Katarina Lindquist Barinova
Irina Petrushenko
Jan Bengtsson
Tatiana Axelsson
Marcus Johansson
Anton Pashorin
Johan Gynnhammar
Marko Savanovic
Alexander Sandberg
Sasha Gazzajev
Svetlana Östman
Kat Zayac
Elisabeth Marina von Prouss
Jan Lindstrand
Tanja Popov
Lalitta Turial
Pjotrs Hlebnikovs
Gennadij Martynov
Natalia Gorlova
Staffan Lundberg
Jeremija Isakovic
Sergej Anochin
Larisa Sadovnikova
Carl Mellgren
Alexandra Anochina
Christer Törnblom
Alminson Lilia
Olga Öhgren
Dmitrij Simis
Snezana Westberg
Daniel Hägg
Darko Kljakic
Josip Mlinar
Mikael Nilsson
Srdjan Djokic
Mattias Milder
Katerina Abashina
Tatiana Magnusson
Stefan Bosnjak
Victor Yuri Sandoval Hinojosa
Kjell Holmsten
Ljubica Skaljac
Carlos Chamorro
Ari Nurminen
Rajko Zoric
Tom Appel
Håkan Lundberg
Patrik Ståhl Dordevic
Bosiljka Bojovic
Anna Magnusson
Sven-Eric Holmström
Radic Milan
Vlade Vuksanovic
Aleksandra Radakovic
Nedeljko Gorcanac
Ludmila Zueva
Andrej Malinin
Lana Nylund
Dali Bojovic
Natalia Ivanova
Camilla Sindby
Christina Karvahall
Roman Kossov
Stanislav Simic
Ekaterina Troitskaia
Annika Gullberg
Marina Mimi Andersson
Evgenia Palin
Drago Drangel
Anastassia Carlberg
Ljubica Domazetovic
Brankica Domazetovic
Natalia Gorolova
Jonathan Müller
Dmitry Thomas Zhulanov
Sergei Gorlov
Lars Blomquist
Elza Sharafutdinova
Elena Kovalnok
Eugenia Denisova Karlsson
Aleksandar Djuric
Anders Jansson
Krister Palin
Jana Jensen
Dennis Shatov
Pierre Stjärnfeldt
Monika Abbas
Dragana Bojovic
