After the allegations of manipulation at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) against juries from six countries, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) explained for the first time on Thursday why Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino were punished with an exclusion in the final.

According to this, the jurors from four of the six countries placed five of the countries in the top five in the second semi-final on the Thursday before last.

They could not vote for themselves.

A jury placed the other five in the top six, the final jury placed four of the other countries in the top four, and the fifth country came in seventh.

The juries of the other 15 countries, including Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, did not see five of these six countries in the top eight.

Peter Philipp Schmitt

Editor in the department "Germany and the World".

  • Follow I follow

In detail: The jury from Azerbaijan placed Poland in first place, followed by Georgia, Romania, Montenegro and San Marino.

The jury from Georgia gave twelve points to Azerbaijan, ten to Montenegro, eight to Romania, seven to San Marino and six to Poland.

Romania's order was San Marino, Poland, Montenegro, Azerbaijan and Georgia, San Marino's was Romania, then Georgia, Poland, Montenegro and Azerbaijan.

Montenegro put Georgia first, Azerbaijan third, followed by Romania, San Marino and Poland.

Poland voted for San Marino, Azerbaijan, Romania and Montenegro, with Georgia in seventh place.

The other countries combined saw Sweden, Australia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Belgium in the top five, followed by Azerbaijan in sixth.

Poland was ninth, San Marino 13th,

"Baseless and ridiculous"

According to the rules of the ESC, the Secretary General responsible, in this case the Swede Martin Österdahl, can cancel the votes and replace them with aggregated votes based on experience and comparable voting behavior from other countries.

The EBU has now received statements from all six countries, but stands by its decision.

The six juries were also not allowed to vote in the final.

The responsible broadcasters from the six countries call the allegations "baseless and ridiculous" (Poland) in their statements, but want to investigate the matter further.

"By awarding the highest score to Ukraine, our jury has proved its independence," writes Polish broadcaster TVP of Saturday's final vote.