Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the Eurovision Song Contest as a ‘Trojan horse of social corruption,’ following the victory of Swiss singer Nemo, who is openly LGBTQ+. In a speech after a cabinet meeting on Monday, Erdogan described the contest’s participants as the ‘Trojan horses of social corruption.’ He claimed that the government was right to keep the country out of the pan-European competition since 2012.
Erdogan’s comments come after Nemo’s victory with their song ‘The Code,’ which earned them the lion’s share of the jury vote and fifth in the public vote for their operatic vocal melodies and impressive performance atop a rotating platform. Nemo’s victory was a historic moment for an event that has long championed LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion.
Erdogan has long been criticized for his government’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in recent years. In 2013, he faced a financial corruption scandal when 52 people related to his ruling party, including three of his cabinet ministers, were arrested in raids over $100 billion. Since then, Erdogan has rounded up journalists before they published articles questioning his links to social corruption.
Erdogan also expressed concern over Turkey’s declining birth rate, describing it as an ‘existential threat’ and a ‘disaster’ for the country. Last week, Turkey’s State Statistical Institute announced that the country’s birth rate in 2023 had dropped to 1.51 children per woman. The Turkish leader has long called on families to have at least three children.
