EUROPE is breaking up. Where once the continent was connected by a web of tight relationships, it is now fragmenting into peripheral alliances. The core countries are becoming more isolated; collusion among voting blocs is on the rise.
These are the conclusions of a paper, published last year by three researchers at the University of Central Florida, about the Eurovision Song Contest, the 63rd of which began in Lisbon on May 8th. The competition is as notorious for its politics as its cheesy ballads. Last year Russia withdrew after the host, Ukraine, denied entry to its contestant, who had performed in Crimea after Russia had invaded and annexed the region in 2014. Ukraine had previously won the competition with a cheery song about Joseph Stalin’s deportation of Crimean Tatars during the 1940s. In 2015 Armenia’s lyrics marked 100 years since the massacre of 1.5m people, which its neighbours Turkey and Azerbaijan refuse to recognise as genocide. Turkey has boycotted the event since 2013, in protest...Continue reading
Souce: Europe https://ift.tt/2jR536t
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