Eurovision 2024: “Can’t guarantee safety but do everything we can!” | Police ahead of Eurovision
Now it’s only a month left before the world’s biggest music festival, the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Malmö, Sweden. And preparations are in full swing so that the competition can be carried out with the best possible safety.
Petra Stenkulla is the police area manager in Malmö and was interviewed on P1-Morgon of Sveriges Radio by reporter August Haskbom. Petra comments on the situation:
“It is of course the case that Sweden has a terror threat level of four out of five. And that means that we need to intensify our work together with the security police. But really, you can say that all types of events where there are very many people in the same place always pose a certain risk and that means that we need to take measures to have many police officers and have good planning for anything that could happen, even if it is an accident or anything at all.”
In a time with high terrorist threat, Israel‘s participation has aroused strong reactions and with up to one hundred thousand visitors, the city of Malmö is still planning on an open event. Petra Stenkulla adds:
“Our ambition is for it to be a festive event where people can still feel safe and have fun. Right now, we’re planning for it to be an open event that is happening in several different places. There will be events and people need to be able to move between them. And this is part of our planning.”
In safety planning, the City of Malmö and the police have had frequent communication with last year’s host city, Liverpool. And Petra Stenkulla thinks that a good plan has been formed for this year’s music competition:
“We can never guarantee safety but we will do our upmost to make people feel safe. And we can also assume that there will be both rumor spreading and other factors that will lead to, for example, threats that we need to assess. But we will continue to work with this, we have a solid plan and we feel confident with that plan. So that everyone can feel comfortable.”
Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding this year’s Eurovision Song Contest to be held this May in Malmö, Sweden and any security updates regarding its planning!
Source: Sveriges Radio/P1 Morgon/August Haskbom/Ekot
Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
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