Romania: Will they participate in the future?

As we got to learn during the reveal of the final results of this years contest, 6 countries were found guilty at “irregular voting”. One of these countries were Romania, who in retaliation, has taken these accusation very seriously, and still questions why the EBU decided to cancel their jury vote.

Tonight, the debate continued during the show “Referendum”, where involved people decided to continue the discussion with Romanian viewers and the big question “Should Romania withdraw from Eurovision?“.

The beginning

Among tonight’s guest were Iuliana Marciuc(Head of Delegation), Eda Marcus(Romanian Spokesperson), Liana Damian(Voting project leader), Alex Tocilescu (Musician), Mihai Traistariu (Romania 2006), Mihai Pocorschi (Romanian jury member), Vlad Turcanu (TRM – Moldova), Vali Boghean (Musician – Moldova), Horia Moculescu(Composer), Sanda Ladosi (Romanian Jury member & Romania 2004) & Ovi (Romanian Jury member & Romania 2010 & 2014).

The debate started with explaining the entire situation, regarding what had happened and how it happened, and the debate pretty much started with Iuliana explaining everything. Romanian broadcaster (TVR) remains furious and overall bothered, that the EBU gave no indication of there being any problem, before it was too late.

Iuliana starts by saying that she was called by Liana from Bucharest, where they are informed while the jury results took place, that suddenly there was a new list of results, very shortly before Romania were supposed to announce their jury points. As we all know, the Romanian jury results ended up being announced by Martin Österdahl, the executive supervisor of the contest.

A voting poll was even made before tonight’s show, which asked the very simple question “Should Romania remain in the competition?”

At the time of the show when it started, about 14.000+ votes had been casted, with the following results:

• Yes: 57%
• No: 36%
• Don’t care: 7%

The debate

Alex Tocilescu acted as the antagonist of this debate, admittedly, he’s not exactly what anyone would consider a fan nor a follower of the contest, but remained consistent with his opinion on the topic. He believed that the entire topic is pointless and meaningless, claiming that a small amount of points difference doesn’t mean anything, that it’s ridiculous to quit if rules can’t be followed, there’s no gain taking part in the contest and simply that everyone should move on already.

Participants of the program were allowed to share their point of view of the entire situation, and the program was done with no sort of hysterical interruption.

On the other hand, which was quite surprising nonetheless, Mihai Traistariu remained very positive and optimistic about this entire situation. He even complimented WRS performance at this year’s contest, and even believed that Romania had winning potential. Traistariu even countered Tocilescu‘s point of view, by mentioning how much his own participation at Eurovision, back in 2006, helped him travel around Europe, release music and perform all around the world.

The mystery continued even further to Moldova, as both Vlad Turcanu and Vali Boghean also had a say in the debate. It was noted that it was very unexpected, that the jury members of Moldova, had suddenly “failed” Romania. Eventually, it was revealed that the Romanian jury had in fact given Moldova 12 points, but that the Moldovan jury, whose jury weren’t part of the irregular votes, had awarded Romania 0 points.

The lack of points from the Moldovan jury to Romania was unexpected, but at the same time, Vlad Turcanu wished to ensure, that it will not have any effect on Romania & Moldova’s relationship.

Different subject were also questioned, which included the usual “Greece & Cyprus” friendship, as well as the “Ex-Yugoslavia” and “Nordics” pact, which do exist in the political scene of the contest, but was instead ignored. TVR also remains questionable about “the suspected pact” between Sweden, Australia & Belgium, who all rewarded each other highly, but was ignored as well.

The debate also featured three of the five Romanian jury members, which included Ovi, Sanda & Mihai Pocorschi. All three made it clear, that they couldn’t state anything on behalf of any other jury member, but only themselves. Mihai Pocorschi once again confirmed, that his view on San Marino, and the reason for his high score for them, was that he’s familiar with Achille Lauro and that it indeed was an independent decision to award San Marino a great score in the semi-final. Unfortunately, both Sanda and Ovi featured late in the program, and didn’t have much to say during the show. None of the three jury members went further into details about their semi-final voting, other than they did all follow the rules. Especially Ovi who has been very much involved with the contest, being part of the jury selection in various countries, as well as Romania.

Horia Moculescu also joined in on the debate and remained supportive of the contest, but furious about the situation. He believes that it is expected to see voting blocks in the competition, as explained before, such as the “Nordics”, “Ex-Yugoslavia”, “Baltics” and so on. Moculescu even defended Ovi‘s way of ranking during the semi-final, which he said had no modifications whatsoever. At the same time, he was strongly disappointed by Moldova to not give Romania 12 points, considering Moldova their only ally in the contest, which easily could be explained as a tradition that was ruined.

Conclusion

At the end of the show, no conclusion was really made. TVR still believe and are still willing for an open discussion with the EBU, but are still not being given any proper responds nor answers. The question still remains the same, but the support for continued participation did drop slightly, after 18.000+ votes were counted at the end of the show. The support to remain was still in the majority however, with the following score:

• Yes (Da): 56%
• No (Nu): 38%
• Don’t care (Nu ma intereseaza): 7%

The voting will remain open for the rest of the week, and the question is simply “Do you want Romania to participate at Eurovision?“. The full show can be re-watched below (In Romanian).

What do #YOU think about this entire situation, do #YOU think Romania should keep participating and who do #YOU think is right or wrong in this entire situation? It’s time for #YOU to let us know on our forum HERE or on our social media platforms.