Neutrality Belongs In The Cemetery, Peppi Azzopardi Says As He Gushes Praise Over Ukraine’s Eurovision Victory
Renowned TV host Peppi Azzopardi has weighed in on Ukraine’s Eurovision victory, expressing his delight at how Europe sent out a political message and claiming that “neutrality belongs in the cemetery”.
“God forbid Ukraine didn’t win,” Azzopardi said as he shared a photo of a tearful Ukrainian boy waving goodbye to a friend while fleeing the war and recounting a tragic story of a Ukrainian man who was killed on the same day as his wife gave birth.
“During the Eurovision, people around Europe voted for Ukraine’s song because they spoke in the name of the boy in the photo and in the name of that baby whose father died as soon as he entered the world,” he said. “People took a political decision, even if some – like myself – might have even liked Ukraine’s song more than, say, Sweden’s.”
“The people turned the Eurovision into a tool of protest.”
Azzopardi dismissed complaints aired on social media that merging politics with a musical festival is a unhealthy combination, arguing that artists have a duty to speak out about human suffering.
“In my eyes, a song isn’t artistic if it ignores all those hundreds of children who are getting exploded. Art isn’t art if artists remain comfortable and if no one sings in the name of those migrants who are deported to Libya, where they are raped, tortured and killed.”
“True artists aren’t scared of being misunderstood, they don’t try and please everyone and they aren’t scared of political and multi-millionaire power.”
“Neutral art isn’t art but alienation. In the Eurovision, the people didn’t remain neutral and they did well not to. Neutrality belongs in the cemetery.”
Malta is one of only five militarily neutral EU member states, along with Finland, Sweden, Austria and Ireland.
However, in a historic foreign policy shift, Finland and Sweden have both applied to join the NATO military alliance due to heightened security concerns in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Do you think Malta should remain a militarily neutral country?
READ NEXT: Solar Panels To Be Mandatory On All New EU Buildings, Commission Proposes
