the Dutch candidate Joost Klein excluded from the competition for a “threatening movement” towards a camera operator – Libération

The participation of the singer representing the Netherlands in the final, this Saturday May 11 in Sweden, was canceled following the opening of a police investigation linked to the complaint of a member of the production team targeting him.

The Netherlands out of the Eurovision final. The Dutch candidate was excluded from the competition this Saturday, May 11, a few hours before its outcome. It all started on Friday followingnoon, when confusion reigned in Malmö, Sweden, around an “incident” involving Joost Klein.

The cause, we learned this Saturday evening, was a “threatening movement” towards a camera operator that occurred on Thursday, explained the Dutch broadcaster Avrotros. The Dutch competitor, who rushed to the boxes following the semi-final, “indicated several times that he did not wish to be filmed. This was not respected,” according to Avrotros. “This caused Joost to make a threatening movement towards the camera operator. Joost did not touch the camera operator,” insisted the public broadcaster in a press release. “Several solutions” were proposed to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which “nevertheless decided to disqualify Joost Klein”, regretted Avrotros, describing the sanction as “very heavy and disproportionate”.

The EBU, which oversees the competition, had justified its decision earlier in the day by an investigation into a complaint filed by a member of the production team. “Swedish police investigated a complaint filed by a female member of the production team following an incident that occurred following her performance during Thursday evening’s semi-final,” the EBU explained this Saturday in a communicated. While the legal proceedings continue, it would not be appropriate for him to continue to participate in the competition.”

“We have taken note of the disqualification [de Joost Klein] by the EBU. Avrotros considers this disqualification disproportionate and is shocked by this decision. We deeply regret it and we will return to the subject later,” reacted during the day. Avrotros on Instagram. For its part, the NPO, the public audiovisual company of the Netherlands, considered the disqualification “very drastic” and expressed its “disappointment”.

Head covered with the flag of his country

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU, organizer of the competition) informed on Friday that an “investigation [était] in progress” regarding the singer. Several hypotheses had emerged on Friday regarding the open investigation, the Dutch singer having multiplied the escapades. The website of Dutch public television Nos, which selected Joost Klein, reported that at the end of the morning the day before, during the final dress rehearsal of the show which is to take place this Saturday at the Malmö Arena, the singer, who qualified the day before for the grand final with his parody song Europapa, participated in the “parade of flags”, which is to open the evening. But when his turn came to go on stage, in fifth position, he was absent, and it was the Israeli Eden Golan, also qualified Thursday evening, who continued with her rehearsal.

In the late press conference bringing together the ten qualifiers for Thursday’s semi-final, Nos continued, a Polish journalist asked Eden Golan if she thought her presence at the competition, following numerous requests for withdrawal and boycott linked to the war situation in Gaza, endangered the public and other participants. The Swedish journalist who presented the conference intervened to say that the candidate did not have to answer this question. Joost Klein, who then had his head covered with his country’s flag, took it off and exclaimed: “Why not?” Eden Golan finally provided his answer. The images can be viewed on the Swedish television SVT website.

But the EBU investigation ultimately did not focus on this heated exchange. On Friday followingnoon, the daily newspaper De Telegraaf also reported that Joost Klein had unfollowed the Eurovision account on Instagram, and deleted all images of the semi-final posted the day before. In the followingnoon, the SVT reported a “physical confrontation between the artist and a photographer”.

Updated this Saturday, May 11 at 12:25 p.m. with the exclusion of the Dutch candidate for an investigation opened following a woman from the production; at 6:55 p.m. with the reason for the incident.