The Netherlands’ Joost Klein is banned from Eurovision – Dagsavisen

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– Swedish police have investigated a complaint from a female member of the production about an incident following his performance in the semi-final on Thursday. While the investigation is ongoing, it would not be right for him to continue in the competition, writes the Eurovision organizer in a press release.

Furthermore, Eurovision writes that there is zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior during the event, and that they work to ensure that all employees have a safe working environment.

– In light of that, we see Klein’s behavior as a breach of the competition’s rules.

Only Klein and the production member who notified are involved in the incident.

Never happened before

– This is the first time a participant has been disqualified so close to the competition, says Morten Thomassen, who is president of the Norwegian Grand Prix club, to NTB.

– It is a shame, but understandable, that he is disqualified when his behavior breaks the rules of the competition, continues Thomassen.

He does not necessarily believe that the exclusion of Klein helps draw attention away from Israel’s participation in the singing competition, which has been controversial.

– It can go both ways, but I think perhaps many will blame Israel, at least indirectly, for why Klein acted the way he did.

– I am deeply sorry

The Dutch broadcaster Avrotros calls the ban “disproportionate” and writes that they “are shocked”, according to the Dutch newspaper The Telegraph.

– We are deeply sorry for this and will return to this later, says Avrotros.

The Netherlands took part in the semi-finals on Thursday, but did not take part in the general test on Friday afternoon nor in the jury test on Friday evening. Klein’s performance was instead shown at the jury trial in the form of a video recording on a large screen.

In the meantime, several media outlets have reported on an incident where threats are said to have been made by a person at the Malmö arena, without mentioning who. Some of them have pointed out that it is Klein who is behind it, without the police having confirmed this.

– Something that rattles

– There is something jarring when the Dutch broadcaster Avrotros now strongly disputes the disqualification, now it remains to hear what Joost Klein himself has to say. This case is not over, says Håkon Røssum in Eurovision Norway VG.

Beyond that, he says that he has no comment on the matter other than that it is very dramatic.

The points are cancelled

Even if the Netherlands does not participate, all the other countries will keep their times for performing in the final, the organizer states.

The only change is that there will be no appearance to watch at number five, which the Netherlands should have had. At the same time, the organizer asks viewers not to vote for song number five, as they may have to pay.

The jury results from Friday have also been recalculated so that the Netherlands does not get any points, the organizer says. For example, if the Netherlands had been ranked ninth by a national jury in a country ranked tenth, the latter country now ranks ninth and receives two points. The next on the list then moves to tenth place and gets one point.