This Saturday, May 11, the grand final of Eurovision 2024 will be held at the Malmö Arena in Malmö (Sweden), in which 25 countries will compete to win the crystal microphone. The edition is being one of the most controversial in recent years, since Israel’s participation is not being very welcome among the rest of the delegations due to its conflict with Palestine. In the last few hours, Soraya Arnelas, in charge of announcing Spain’s score in the contest, has made some statements about the flag of Extremadura and Palestine that have not gone unnoticed on social networks.
The controversy has arisen as a result of an interview by the former Operación Triunfo contestant with FormulaTV, in which the artist announced that she will not show the flag of her autonomous community during her appearance in the contest. “You already know that the issue of flags is a little bit…”, the singer began by saying. “And it turns out that the flag of Extremadura is the same as the flag of Palestine, it is green, white and black, the only thing that the flag of Palestine has is the red stripe. So, by my own decision, because I don’t want to politicize and I don’t want to get into debates,” Soraya told the aforementioned media.
“By my own decision, since I don’t want to politicize and I don’t want to get into debates, I was going to make a small nod to my land by carrying that little flag, but in the end I have decided not to wear flags of any kind,” he said hours before the Eurovision Song Contest. . “Although there are going to be many flags flying, but I have preferred not to get into that,” he stated, provoking a large number of reactions on social networks.
“If a lady is not good at announcing points, let her not give them…” said a user on X (formerly Twitter). “Soraya Arnelas, spokesperson for the Spanish jury at Eurovision, defends being ‘neutral’ with the Palestinian genocide and will not wear an Extremaduran symbol so that it is not confused with Palestinian. What a SHAMELESS. “We don’t deserve this shitty representation,” expressed another user, visibly upset.
It should be remembered that the presence of Israel at the festival has generated great tension. There have been several delegations and artists who have positioned themselves against this presence. This Saturday, Bambie Thug, the representative of Ireland, decided to be absent from the dress rehearsal to inform the European Broadcasting Union of a complaint about the pejorative comments made about her by the Israeli broadcasting corporation (KAN).
During the rehearsal of the flag parade this Saturday, three delegations did not come out: Ireland, Greece and Switzerland – something that did not happen in the grand final. Likewise, Alessandra Mele, who was to be the spokesperson for the votes of the Norwegian jury, announced hours before the start of the gala that she would not finally participate in the contest and was positioning herself against the participation of Israel. Loreen, winner of the last edition, assured that she would not go out to present the trophy to the Middle Eastern country if she won the contest, as traditionally happens with the previous winner of the festival.
