Serbia just won tonight the Eurovision Song Contest. Who cares? Nobody excepts maybe Serbia.
One thing remains constant: the votes are still quite political. Check it out:
Russia and Belarus continue their love affair by granting the maximum points to each other. Moldova votes for Belarus.
Some large ethnic groups make themselves heard: the large Turkish population of Germany has tilted Berlin’s vote in favor of the Turkish band; Israel’s immigrants from the former Soviet block have voted for Russia (8 points), Ukraine (10 points) and Belarus (12 points); Switzerland goes for Bosnia, Turkey and Serbia.
Some classics remain: Cyprus being the only ones to vote for Greece and Armenia (to piss off Turkey), Armenia votes for Russia, one of its few allies in its neighborhood, Malta votes for its former colony the UK and Albania sends SMS to its Muslim neighbors, Bosnia and Turkey.
The Scandinavian countries play among themselves: Norway and Denmark give 12 points to Sweden, Iceland votes for Finland and Sweden picks Finland. Baltic countries do the same with Latvia voting for Lithuania.
The surprises come from those you expect the least:
The republics of the former Yugoslavia say “sans rancune”. Montenegro gives 12 points to its former ruler Serbia; Bosnia does the same, which is more surprising. Slovenia grants 10 and 12 marks respectively to Bosnia and Serbia. Macedonia votes for Belgrade.
And the prize for the best surprise goes to Turkey, granting 12 points to Armenia.
So I wonder if one day, we will see the following:
France and Poland vote for Germany, Greece and Armenia go for Turkey, Turkey picks Greece, the Baltic countries vote for Russia, Azerbaijan selects Armenia, Serbia goes for Croatia and Bosnia… and everybody votes for Israel? OK, I know, I am pushing it…
