In Romania, they announced a possible refusal to participate in

Romania may refuse to participate in Eurovision due to the replacement of votes in the last competition by the organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), said the DIRECTOR general of the Romanian television channel TVR, which is a member of the union, Dan Turturica, reports the local edition Adevarul.

“The respect with which the EBU treats public television in Romania, Poland, San Marino, Montenegro, Georgia and Azerbaijan is shocking. I will personally support in the governing bodies of TVR the refusal to participate in Eurovision and will explore the possibility of suing the EBU and claiming damages for the damage caused to our image,” said Turturica.

The statement of the HEAD of TVR came amid the fact that at the last Eurovision Song Contest, the final of which took place on May 15, a change in the votes of national juries was noticed. This was previously reported by Romania, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

The EBU accused Romania, Poland, San Marino, Montenegro, Georgia and Azerbaijan of suspiciously voting against each other in the second semi-final on 12 May. For this, these countries were fined, which later affected the results of the voting of their national juries in the final of the competition. TVR noted that Australia, Sweden and Belgium also voted suspiciously, but they were not affected by any sanctions .

“Jury scores have been replaced by EBU scores – through a so-called non-transparent ‘algorithm’ that in turn raises suspicion – other [countries] have not been sanctioned. Worse, they (participants. -) received additional points sent by the EBU on behalf of the penalized countries, ”the message on the TVR website says.

Due to the algorithm, 12 maximum points, which the Romanian jury awarded to Moldova, left the participants from Ukraine, which eventually won the competition. At the same time, the Romanian presenter Eda Marcus, who was supposed to announce the results, was not shown on the air, citing problems. TVR emphasized in the statement that it had handed over to the organizers a notarized document with the results.

The Romanian broadcaster expressed disagreement with such a policy of the EBU. According to TVR, the union did not notify the TV channel of their suspicions when the second semi-final was held, so that the broadcaster could understand the situation. The fact that in the final the EBU decided to distribute votes according to its algorithm was considered by TVR as an indicator that the union does not treat the broadcaster as a “real partner”.