“We know there will be protests!”: Malmö, Sweden’s third city, is preparing to host Eurovision in early May under tense security conditions, ready to prevent unrest inside and outside the venue.
In the southern city of 362,133 inhabitants – and 186 nationalities – work is intensifying to guarantee the reliability of public transport around the event from May 5 to 11, while the logos of this 68th edition begin to timidly swarm. But many of the preparations take place behind the scenes, due to the multiplicity of threats.
“Nous avons le conflit entre Israël et le Hamas, la guerre en Ukraine qui affecte la Suède et il ya un risque accru d’opérations d’influence, de cyberattaques”, énumère pour l’AFP Ulf Nilsson, le responsible de la security de the city. “We live in difficult times.”
Faced with tensions, and while Sweden raised its alert level last summer after acts of desecration of the Koran, the police say they are prepared. “It is not unknown to us that conflicts around the world can affect our work and the daily lives of the inhabitants of Malmö,” police spokesman Niels Norling says without saying much.
Authorization of meetings
In the city, where much of Sweden’s population of Palestinian origin lives, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has added a new dimension to preparations.
“We cannot directly say that this gives us more problems, but they are new variables that we must take into account in our work,” says the police officer.
“A few months before the event, we have already received requests to authorize meetings in favor of Israeli participation or in protest,” he adds. On the part of public television SVT, which organizes the event together with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), all scenarios are being considered.
“We are absolutely prepared for protests outside the room, so we are preparing for that, but also inside,” says executive producer Ebba Adielsson.
Petition and boycott
The petition titled “No to Eurovision in Malmö with the participation of Israel” has gathered more than 800 signatures and will be discussed at the municipal council in April. It remains symbolic because the EBU has validated Israeli participation.
In 2013, when Malmö hosted the 58th edition of the European Song Contest, residents protested against Israeli participation.
“This is the first time since the Gaza war that Israel has participated in an international event, so it is also the first time that the BDS movement has had the opportunity to protest against Israel on a global level,” says political scientist Anders Persson. from Linnaeus University.
Especially since Malmö, located in the far south of Sweden, is easily accessible to activists from all over the world.
Karin Karlsson, events manager at Malmö City Hall, is not afraid of excesses. “It’s Sweden and we’re in Malmö. We want to show that we can have different opinions but that we express them peacefully,” she says.
“Greater power of attraction”
The police, who claim to be widely mobilized, refuse to communicate the arrival of possible reinforcements to guarantee the safety of some 100,000 tourists from 80 different countries for the occasion.
“The event has a greater power of attraction,” says Karin Karlsson. “Eurovision 2024 is much more important than in 2013, it is an event that has grown in size as a whole.”
“They want to project a positive image by saying: ‘we are delighted to welcome you’,” jokes the academic, who believes that Malmö would never have been chosen if the selection process had been carried out after the start of the war.
Some fans of the contest decided to boycott it due to Israel’s participation. “The Eurovision Song Contest is part of my DNA. I grew up with it,” says Monia Aissaoui, a 41-year-old teacher.
But this year it will be ignored because “given their firm stance toward Russia in the past, they should have taken the same stance toward Israel more than ever.”
Source: BFM TV
