My European flag was confiscated at Eurovision — this is why it’s wrong
The opinions expressed on this article are these of the writer and don’t signify in any manner the editorial place of Euronews.
For us, younger individuals from all corners of Europe, the European flag is a unifying image that transcends borders, cultures, and languages. It symbolises our collective want to stay in a Europe the place freedom, peace, and cooperation reign supreme, Dorin Frăsîneanu writes.
I first watched the Eurovision Music Contest after I was 11 years previous. It was the yr Moldova participated for the primary time, and Zdob si Zdub’s “Grandma” managed to safe sixth place. Since then, I’ve develop into one of many competitors’s largest followers.
Right now, Eurovision continues to be probably the most thrilling European occasion of the yr for a whole lot of hundreds of thousands who tune in to look at the present in Could, uniting individuals on the European continent and past by means of music.
Nonetheless, Eurovision left a bitter style for me and my associates this yr, tarnishing what ought to have been a joyous event.
Amidst the mishaps and the drama surrounding the present this yr, the frustration and frustration that my group of associates from Moldova, Greece, Spain, France, and Austria skilled struck fairly laborious.
We had been those who introduced the European flag to the world in Malmo, and we had been those who confronted the surprising confiscation of our cherished image below the guise of political neutrality.
Safety knowledgeable us that the EBU had banned the flag inside the world. This revelation was much more complicated provided that final yr, we had been truly handed European flags upon coming into the venue in post-Brexit Liverpool.
‘We need to stay below a blue star’
The European flag has develop into greater than only a illustration of a political entity — it embodies the aspirations and beliefs of a whole technology.
For us, younger individuals from all corners of Europe, the European flag is a unifying image that transcends borders, cultures, and languages. It symbolises our collective want to stay in a Europe the place freedom, peace, and cooperation reign supreme.
Its presence is a strong reminder of the shared values that bind us as Europeans, whether or not within the EU, Ukraine, Georgia, or my beloved Moldova — a rustic that’s preventing towards notably unfavorable odds to develop into nearer to the remainder of Europe.
As a baby, I fondly recall my mother and father and I singing a very fashionable track from the early Nineteen Nineties, a time when Moldova was striving for independence amidst the Soviet Union’s resistance.
The lyrics went: “Allow us to stay in peace for as soon as/We need to stay below a blue star/The best way the guts wishes” — which I’ve all the time interpreted as a direct allusion to the European flag and its embodiment of freedom and peace.
The EBU’s determination to ban the European flag from Eurovision festivities was not solely misguided but additionally undermined the very essence of what the competition claims to face for — bringing individuals collectively.
Whereas I perceive the EBU’s want to take care of political neutrality, I consider they’ve didn’t recognise the flag’s significance as a transnational and supraethnic image, one whose specific aim is to minimise political infighting amongst nations.
It is time to come collectively for Europe
The flag will not be a political assertion, however an emblem of the world we aspire to stay in.
Its absence at Eurovision thus seems like a missed alternative and a step backwards in our collective journey in direction of a extra cohesive and built-in Europe.
We had been six associates from completely different corners of Europe, and all of us cheered for the artists and had differing favourites.
All all of us needed was to be below one flag that united us, gave us a way of belonging and kinship, and strengthened the notion that we’re all a part of the identical large household — and for us, that is what the European flag represents.
The EBU should urgently reassess its place concerning the European flag. To echo the feelings of Joost Klein’s track, it is time to come collectively for Europe — the place my associates and I need to keep till the tip of our lives.
Dorin Frăsîneanu is Coverage Officer for ALDE Occasion. Previously, he served as an adviser and Deputy Chief of Workers of former Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița.
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