Eurovision: Netherlands refuse to announce voting and Dutch commentator ruins the festival

The Dutch television channel AVROTROS announced that it will not announce the country’s jury points in the final of the Eurovision Festival, which takes place this Saturday in the Swedish city of Malmö.

Excluded from the final due to an alleged incident involving singer Joost Klein and a female member of the event’s production team, the delegation from the Netherlands states: “Now that we are not part of the grand final, we also do not feel the need to indicate our vote. We thought tonight would be very different.”

According to the Dutch delegation, the disqualification of the Netherlands is a “disproportionate” response to an incident that, it is alleged, was triggered by a camera operator who insisted on recording images of Joost Klein after he had repeatedly asked to not be filmed.

AVROTROS channel commentator, Cornald Maas, reacted on camera, in a video released by Germany’s RTL in which the Dutch television professional can be seen insulting the European Broadcasting Union.

Portugal will be represented in the Eurovision final with Iolanda and the song ‘Grito’.