{"id":445171,"date":"2026-05-16T19:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/445171\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T19:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:14:08","slug":"crowds-protest-in-vienna-ahead-of-eurovision-grand-finale-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/445171\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowds protest in Vienna ahead of Eurovision grand finale \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Norbert Kettner, chief executive of Vienna\u2019s tourism board, told POLITICO that security measures around the city are \u201cmuch more intense\u201d than the last time Eurovision was hosted here in 2015.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, the security measures are extremely high.\u00a0No\u00a0big\u00a0event in the free world can be made anymore without high security levels,\u201d Kettner said, adding that the city is working to \u201cprotect people who want to celebrate peacefully, but also protect people who want\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0peacefully.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added that across the week, the energy\u00a0among fans\u00a0from different countries\u00a0has been \u201cpeaceful and moderate.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eurovision\u2019s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/eurovision-united-nations-top-official-defends-ahead-of-tense-final\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">repeatedly underlined that the song contest is apolitical<\/a>, and that any broadcaster can take part as long as they follow EBU rules.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a press conference on Saturday evening, the director general of Austria\u2019s public broadcaster (ORF), Ingrid Thurnher,\u00a0addressed the protest. She said\u00a0everybody has the right to their opinion, and \u201cthat\u2019s the nature of democracy,\u201d but as the final is tonight\u00a0the focus should be on the stage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would really like for a couple of hours to have music, have the whole attention at this Eurovision Song Contest.\u00a0Everybody\u2019s\u00a0heard,\u00a0everybody has his right to say his opinion tonight, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0the musicians who take the voice on this stage,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norbert Kettner, chief executive of Vienna\u2019s tourism board, told POLITICO that security measures around the city are \u201cmuch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8247,1153,5866,1503,5471,1901,42,46,4178,409,43,48,4439,140,40,38,41,39,2201],"class_list":["post-445171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-austria","tag-conflict","tag-crisis","tag-culture","tag-democracy","tag-genocide","tag-headlines","tag-israel","tag-media","tag-music","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-rights","tag-security","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}