The Eurovision Song Contest was held in Athens on Saturday night. Finland won with a heavy rock anthem by Lordi, a group who never appear in public without their monster make-up.
On Sunday, Montenegro held a referendum on whether it should become independent from Serbia. The result has yet to be officially confirmed but it looks like a dispute inside Serbia and Montenegro over the country’s entry could have swung the referendum. If so, this could be the second time that Eurovision has had a fundamental effect on the internal politics of a competing country. The 2003 win by Ukraine is believed by many to have encouraged the “Orange Revolution”.
Under an agreement in 2003 brokered by the EU, Serbia and Montenegro, the last remaining Yugoslav republics still together, agreed a looser federation. Despite having a federal President and army, the two states have already almost become different countries. Montenegro has adopted the Euro as its currency and there are customs borders between the two. The agreement allowed for a referendum in Montenegro. Separation would take effect if the “Da” vote exceeded 55%
Currently the unofficial result is that the yes camp has received 55.3% on a turnout of around 85%. That extra 0.3% represents under 1,800 people and it is quite possible that this number or more would have been encouraged to go out and vote yes on the basis of what happened before and during this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Last year Serbia and Montenegro was represented by a group called No Name. During the show, they were seen draped in the Montenegran flag while in the “Green Room” where contestants waited for the results. This is taken in the Balkans as support for independence.
Each country has a “primary” to select its entry to the contest. The BBC continues the tale:
This year the contest to choose a band from Serbia and Montenegro took place in Belgrade on 11 March.
A few hours earlier the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic had been found dead in his cell at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
When No Name won for the second year, the Serbs in the audience went berserk. They began chucking bottles at No Name and screaming: “Thieves! Thieves!”
“There was no political motivation,” said Milica Belevic, one of the Montenegrin judges.
It is a claim that is widely disbelieved in Serbia.
The result was that Serbia and Montenegro had no entry in this year’s contest but the viewers of the two state broadcasters were allowed to vote. The format of the contest is that each country’s votes are reported back by video link, usually from the capital. (There can be exceptions as I believe the Dutch use their main studios as Hilversum. This year the very merry male presenter asked the Greek guy doing the presentation for his telephone number so he could arrange a date!) Anyway, the presenter in the Serbian Television headquarters in Belgrade introduced the Serbian and Montenegro results referring to the lack of an entry and prominsing that next year they would be back with a winning entry. This could very well be seen as rubbing salt further into the wound. The words quoted by the BBC from the Montenegro broadcasters seem to be a more accurate prediction:
“Yugoslavia was divided with guns,” laughed Sabrija Vulic of Montenegrin Television, “and Serbia and Montenegro will be divided by songs!
Independence has been portrayed as a way of getting Montenegro into the EU faster than staying in association with Serbia. Negotiations on accession have been stalled by the European Commission until the remining indicted war criminals are arrested and handed over by Serbia. Independence would enable Montenegro to make a separate application for membership. It is quite likely that the first stage, a Stabilisation and Association Agreement could be concluded very soon after formal independence. These allow for closer economic and political co-operation between the EU and other countries, part of its “soft diplomacy”. All the other former Yugoslav republics have one and of course Slovenia is already a member, with Croatia’s application well on course for the next round of accessions after those of Romania and Bulgaria, which should be in January.
