SAN MARINO – The protest of the state television of San Marino through Director General Mr Carlo Romeo last week brought an interest to ask some questions to the person who caused a bit of an earthquake in the Eurovision Song Contest.
What are the reasons of your protest?
Through the new rules released by the EBU, the discrimination towards San Marino has become officially formalized. Unlike all the other participating countries, our citizens won’t have the same voting rights as those citizens. That is to say, 50% of the San Marino vote will be decided by the Sammarinese while the remaining 50% will be decided by some other countries. This decision by the EBU comes after three years of internal discussion, during which we’ve never been involved nor at least informed.
Will you take part in the 2016 edition?โจ
Sure. At this point everything has already started and Serhat is an amazing artist, representative and travel companion; we’ll finish with him what we have started with him. Artists are not part of this unpleasant story made up of arrogance and little institutional fairness.
Will you be in Stockholm?โจ
It’s not usual for me to go to the Eurovision Song Contest as the TV president, even though this year I personally promised Serhat to be there with the rest of the delegation. At this point I am sorry to say I see no reason for me to be in Stockholm after such off-hand behavior and so, for what it’s worth, I am not going to attend. I’m used to keep my promises, but Serhat will surely understand. If we cannot get a safeguard (which should be due, in my opinion) as one of the Small States, we at least ask for some respect.
What will you do in 2017?
โจThe board of the TV will decide. In the worst case, we wouldn’t be the first country to withdraw from the competition.
