Surprise: 43 countries will participate in Eurovision 2018!
Finally "the curse of 43" is broken. FYR Macedonia will also participate in Eurovision 2018! With the presence 'in extremix' of the Balkan country the record of countries of Belgrade 2008 and Düsseldorf 2011 is reached.
The EBU, less than a month ago, expelled the MRT for the non-payment of a millionaire debt that, according to local media, would amount to more than 22 million euros to the total of its suppliers. The hole with the European Broadcasting Union, however, would be around 500,000 euros, a figure far removed from that of the Romanian TVR or the Bosnian BHRT, which were also banned at the time. The Eurovision Network not only includes the festival of the same name, but also broadcasting rights for numerous news, sports and entertainment venues and technical and legal services for all its members.
The situation of the Macedonian public television and its expulsion from the EBU caused a scandal in the country, with the Press Association in a state of war against the Government, urging it to resolve the conflict as soon as possible. The European Broadcasting Union has also recently launched a series of measures to help, not only in the economic sphere, but also in the organizational and political sphere, some state radio stations in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. A few days ago, the re-establishment of services between the EBU and the MRT was announced, but the country was not included in the list of Eurovision 2018 participants that a last minute agreement seems to have made possible.
"The Curse of 43" has surrounded Eurovision in the last three years. Although the figure was announced in Kiev 2016, Russia did not go to the Ukrainian capital. This year, again, 43 countries were expected to play, but the fall of FYR Macedonia returned the figure to 42.
It was not the first time that certain conflicts, most of them political, prevented reaching 43 at the festival. Georgia, with singers and song chosen, withdrew from Moscow 2009, and Armenia also did not travel to neighboring and enemy Baku in 2012.
Lisbon 2018, with the Australian extra, thus equals the Eurovision participation record of Düsseldorf 2011 and Belgrade 2008. Serbia had the presence of Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Turkey, but the unexpected withdrawal of Austria prevented it from reaching 44. 10 years.
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