Eurovision will have heightened security as police fear terror attacks

• Police said there will be more cops in Malmo with heavier weapons than usual

Next month’s Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden will be under heightened security, police have said, amid concerns over demonstrations that could lead to unrest and an increased threat of terrorism amid the conflict in the Middle East.

‘The security is going to be rigorous,’ police chief of the southern city of Malmo, Petra Stenkula, told Swedish media, adding that there will be more police on the streets carrying ‘heavier weapons’ than usual, including submachine guns.

Pro-Palestinian activists are planning two large demonstrations to protest at Israel’s participation in Eurovision, as the conflict in the Middle East threatens to overshadow the pop music festival.

Campaigners and some musicians have urged the European Broadcasting Union, the event organiser, to drop Israel from the event over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza, where more than 33,000 have been killed, according to Hamas.

Police also said that an application to stage a demonstration in Malmo to burn a copy of the Quran before the song contest had been handed in, along with at least half a dozen other protest applications, which police said will be assessed.

Sweden’s Loreen, who won last year’s Eurovision song contents in Liverpool

People hold a placard at a demonstration outside Malmo’s City Hall against Israel’s participation in the Eurovision song contest

Eden Golan, Israel’s representative for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo sings during the final stage of ‘Rising Star’, the Israeli Eurovision national selection show on February 6, 2024

Israel’s entry, 20-year-old Eden Golan, will be accompanied by high-level security at all times, while an Israeli official warned attendees from the country last month to ‘hide their identities’.

It comes after undercover reporters from an Israeli news channel claimed they were told by guards at the biggest mosque in Malmo that terrorists are plotting to attack the arena where the five-day contest will be held.

Police said they were investigating the incident, reported earlier this week, while a Eurovision spokesman said the contest would still go ahead.

Last year Sweden raised its terror threat level one notch to ‘high’, the fourth of five levels, for the first time since 2016, amid a deteriorating security situation following recent burnings of the Quran that triggered protests in the Muslim world.

There is no law in Sweden specifically prohibiting the burning or desecration of religious texts. Like many Western countries, Sweden does not have any blasphemy laws.

Sweden has been on high alert since a series of Koran burnings across the country, mainly by immigration opponents, sparked outrage in the Muslim world.

In one protest, 37-year-old Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, along with and Salwan Najem, set fire to a copy of the Koran in front of the building.

There are set to be more police on the streets carrying ‘heavier weapons’ than usual. File image shows a Swedish police officer

Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika (pictured) has staged a number of protests setting fire to the Quran

They had carried out a similar demonstration outside Stockholm’s main mosque in late June. The pair have repeatedly said they wanted the Koran banned in the Nordic nation, which prides itself on its free speech laws.

‘Freedom of expression is strong in Sweden,’ Ms Stenkula said, according to the Malmo newspaper, Sydsvenska. ‘Now we first have to assess the application that has been received, then we have to see if it gets permission.’

She told a press conference that Swedish police will get reinforcements from across the country as well as from Norway and Denmark. She did not provide details.

‘We have terror threat level four, so we cannot empty the whole of Sweden of police officers’ during the song contest, she added.

The live televised final is scheduled for May 11, with semi-finals on May 7 and May 9.

Last week, EBU deputy director-general Jean Philip De Tender said the organisation understands ‘the depth of feeling and the strong opinions’ that this year’s Eurovision has provoked, but ‘firmly oppose any form of online abuse, hate speech, or harassment directed at our artists or any individuals associated with the contest’.

The executive producer of the event for Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT, Ebba Adielsson, said that the security plan was ‘extremely stable.’

Work is underway to build the stage to be used at the Eurovision song contest (ESC) at the Malmo Arena

‘Now what scares me the most is that people are too afraid’ to participate in the event, she said.

More than 100,000 visitors are expected to flock to Malmo in the week leading up to the event.

Launched in 1956 to foster unity after the Second World War, Eurovision has become a camp, feel-good celebration of pop music with an audience of hundreds of millions around the world. It has grown from seven countries to almost 40, including non-European nations such as Israel and Australia.

Olly Alexander representing the United Kingdom performs during the Nordic Eurovision Party concert held at Berns in Stockholm on April 14, 2024

Organisers strive to keep politics out of the contest, not always successfully. Russia has been banned since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden won last year’s contest in Liverpool, England, with the power ballad Tattoo by singer Loreen. The host country is usually the winner of the previous year’s event.

Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city, is home to 360,000 inhabitants, and the city previously hosted Eurovision in 1992 and 2013.

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