NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – A man has been accused of making threats and causing unrest after attacking the ground of the public broadcaster in Cyprus to protest what he said was the country’s “blasphemous” entry into the contest. of Eurovision songs this year, police said Sunday.
Police told The Associated Press that the man, who was not named, was released after being charged with four counts, including verbal abuse.
Police said witnesses to Saturday’s incident told investigators that the man verbally approached employees outside the news department of Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. Apparently he was upset that the broadcaster selected the song “El Diablo” (“The Devil”) performed by Greek singer Elena Tsagrinou to represent Cyprus, because he said it was an affront to Christianity.
The amateur video of the man facing CyBC staff showed him screaming at several employees in the yard, asking how he could justify supporting such a song.
The title of “El Diablo”, as well as his lyrics – “I gave his heart to him diablo … because he tells me I’m his angel” – touched a raw nerve with some in the eastern Mediterranean, who consider him full of satanic connotations.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, an association representing high school theologians has expressed “disgust” with the song and called for it to be withdrawn because it “promises lifelong devotion and confesses love for Satan.”
The agency also reported that the broadcaster received phone calls threatening that “it will be burned” because of the play.
The far-right political party ELAM issued a statement saying that even if the lyrics of the song are metaphorical, “they attack and insult our faith in a shady way.”
Meanwhile, others went on social media to gather contempt for “El Diablo” as a good song, to defend it as a simple story about a “burning love story” or to label its zealous religious detractors. .
The best presentation of Cyprus in the folk music competition was a finalist in 2018 with the song “El Fuego” by singer Eleni Foureira.
The annual Eurovision Song Contest is a beloved European institution, watched by millions of people, often involving controversial plays with a questionable or simply bad taste.