North Macedonia’s MRT condemns Andrea’s flag throwing at Eurovision opening ceremony

North Macedonia’s national broadcaster MRT has “strongly condemned” the actions of their Eurovision 2022 performer Andrea at the turquoise carpet event in Turin on Sunday, after a video emerged of her throwing the North Macedonian flag out of shot for press photos.

In a statement posted on the broadcaster’s website on Sunday evening, they condemn Andrea for throwing “the state flag on the ground during the photo shoot in Turin”.

The statement goes on to suggest a potential withdrawal of Andrea’s ticket as the North Macedonian representative, adding that “the public service is in no way behind this scandalous behavior of our Eurovision representative, who with that gesture showed disrespect for the national symbol, which is punishable by law [in North Macedonia]”.

“MRT expects Andrea to apologize to the citizens for such behavior. The public service is considering the possibility of her withdrawal from Eurovision, although care will be taken not to cause more damage to MRT. All legal possibilities for the strictest sanctioning for this scandal will be taken against those responsible in the Macedonian delegation”.

It is of course not yet known what action will be taken, if any, against the North Macedonian representative, given the proximity to her performance on Thursday evening’s second semi-final of Eurovision 2022. At the time of writing no comment has come from RAI, Eurovision or the EBU.

Andrea herself has already apologised for the incident this evening, which can be seen below;

🇲🇰 UPDATE: An apology video by Andrea has already been spread by MRT this evening, where she says that "reporters asked to take a pic without the flag" and "she didn't mean to insult her nation."https://t.co/lvlF437X7u pic.twitter.com/tbnp9KuYJQ

— ESC Discord (@ESCdiscord) May 8, 2022

Source: MRT. Lead image: Andres Putting / EBU.

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