MALMO, Sweden: The Swedish city of Malmo is preparing to host the Eurovision Song Contest in early May under high security, amid protests over Israel’s participation during its ongoing war with Hamas.
The war in Ukraine, and a heightened threat level in Sweden since August after a spate of Quran burnings angered the Muslim world, meant organisers already had their work cut out to ensure that the world’s biggest live music event, which runs from May 5 to May 11, goes off without a hitch.
“We have the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the war in Ukraine which has affected Sweden, a bigger risk of hybrid warfare, there are cyberattacks,” the head of security for the city of Malmo, Ulf Nilsson, enumerated for AFP.
“We’re living in troubled times.”
In the multicultural city of 360,000 people, where residents hail from 186 countries, police said they were up to the task.
“It’s not uncommon for us to see conflicts around the world affect our work and the daily lives of Malmo residents,” police spokesman Niels Norling said.
With a large share of Sweden’s Palestinian community living in Malmo, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has added an extra dimension to the city’s Eurovision preparations.
“A couple of months before the event we had already received requests to hold demonstrations both in support of Israel’s participation in Eurovision and against it,” Norling said.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which is organising the event together with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), said it also has all bases covered.
“We are planning for all sorts of scenarios,” executive producer Ebba Adielsson told AFP.
“We are absolutely prepared for the fact that there will be demonstrations outside the arena so we are planning for that, and also inside the arena of course.”
Malmo is hosting the event after Swedish singer Loreen won the 2023 contest, watched by about 162 million viewers.
