PRO-EUROPEAN UNION campaigners have rejected claims from British news outlets the Daily Mail and Express that they are “hijacking” the Eurovision Song Contest.
Members from the Liverpool for Europe group plan to hand out 75,000 EU flags to audience members at this week’s Eurovision in Liverpool.
In its report, the Daily Mail said the campaigners plan to “hijack” the song contest by handing out the EU flags. The Express echoed the Daily Mail’s report, also claiming the group plans to “hijack” the competition.
The Eurovision is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – an umbrella organisation for public broadcasters across the wider European area. While the EBU operates across the continent, it is not linked to the EU, and the 2016 Brexit vote had no impact on the UK’s participation on in the song contest.
Speaking to The Journal in Liverpool, Peter Benson from Liverpool for Europe explained that the campaigners are “trying to highlight the impact [of Brexit] on musicians”.
“The broader issue is the lack of freedom of movement, which affects me personally. I’ve got two young daughters, 19 and 22, whose future careers will be blighted as a result of Brexit,” Benson said.
“It’s doing a lot of damage to the UK and more damage than people realise. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine has probably hidden a lot of that. But it’s now becoming more apparent that Brexit has done an enormous amount of damage to the UK economy,” he said.
“But one of the industries that is probably most heavily impacted is the culture and the music industry, who’ve been really, really, really badly affected by Brexit,” Benson added.
He noted the case of German punk band Trigger Cut, who were refused entry to the UK for their British tour last month.
Benson claimed UK musicians have also been stopped travelling around Europe.
“An Irish musician can travel right around Europe but a UK musician cannot,” he said.
“There’s so much red tape, it’s just not feasible,” he said.
When asked about the response from members of the public at the Eurovision this week to their campaign, Benson said they have been “absolutely stunned” by the response from by locals and international visitors.
“They’re literally grabbing the flags and the stickers off us,” he said.
“We’ve had a policeman who’s got a sticker on his shoulder, which I thought was very funny. We had someone who was waving from a shop window and they came down and they took a flag off us and it’s not up on one of the windows,” the campaigner added.
“We have had a phenomenal reception and we think the 75,000 flags that we have with us will be snapped up before Saturday.”
This year’s Eurovision final is being hosted by the UK in Liverpool on behalf of last year’s winner Ukraine.
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