Joost kicked out of Eurovision. Television in the Netherlands reacts. A powerful statement!

Joost Kleinrepresentative of the Netherlands at Eurovision 2024, was considered one of the favorites of the competition. Ultimately, however, he did not appear in the final because the organizers excluded him from the concert.

After the second semi-final, Klein was first suspended by the European Broadcasting Union (he did not take part in any of the rehearsals before Saturday's concert) and then thrown out of the competition.

“The Swedish police investigated a complaint made by a member of the production team following an incident that occurred after her performance in Thursday evening's semi-final. While the legal process continues, it would be inappropriate for him to continue participating in the Competition,” the EBU said in a statement.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate behavior during our event and make every effort to ensure a safe working environment for all Competition employees. In light of this, Joost Klein's behavior towards a team member is considered a violation of the Competition rules,” the organizers continue to write. They also stressed that “no other contractor or member of the delegation was involved in this incident.”

Just after Eurovision started AVROTROS decided not to present the jury's points during the television broadcast.

“With AVROTROS not taking part in the Eurovision grand final, we do not feel the need to transfer points from our jury. After consulting with Nikkie De Jager, who was to be our spokesperson tonight, we decided not to do so. Like Nikkie, we had a different idea this evening,” we read in the latest statement.

Let us add that after the EBU's decision, the Dutch issued a statement in which they considered the punishment for Joost “shockingly severe and inadequate.” They also explained what happened behind the scenes.

“The incident (involving Joost) took place on Thursday evening. Contrary to previous arrangements, Joost was filmed immediately after leaving the stage and when entering the green room. At that point, he made it clear multiple times that he did not want to be filmed. This was not respected “This led to threats he made towards the operator. Joost did not touch her at all. The incident was reported to the EBU and the police,” we read.

“Yesterday and today we consulted the matter with the EBU and proposed several solutions. Despite this, it was decided to disqualify our representative. AVROTROS considers the punishment to be very severe and inadequate. We are in favor of good manners – there is no doubt about it – but in our opinion, excluding us from the competition is not is appropriately balanced against the offense. We are disappointed and sad for the millions of fans who have been waiting for this evening. What Joost brought to the Netherlands and Europe should not have ended like this,” we read.

The statement of the second Dutch broadcaster was in a similar tone – NPO – who considered the punishment “drastic and inadequate”. Cornald Maas, a commentator on behalf of Dutch television called the decision “scandalous”. He also added that he did not see a future for Eurovision functioning this way.