If we are to believe the not overly ambitious Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the president of Re-union's Belgian record company has asked his relatives not to vote for the Netherlands

The Belgian record company ARS Productions released Without you in Belgium and is also Xandee's record company. According to De Telegraaf, Patrick Busschots, president of ARS, has admitted to writing an email to some of his relatives, suggesting not to vote for the Netherlands: “Re-union is indeed one of the biggest competitors for Xandee, I also think they are one of the favourites to win. But I would never do something that would harm one of our own artists. I just wanted to support Xandee”.

Jan Willem Vis, manager of Re-union, was furious when he heard about the email: “Last Friday I contacted ARS and already had the feeling something was going on. Two weeks ago, suddenly the promotion for Paul and Fabrizio stopped”.

In his email, Busschots writes that “Re-union is 50% Belgian Fabrizio comes from Belgium, author's note and that will bring the Belgian 12 points to the Netherlands”. As Busschots seems to see Re-union as most 'dangerous' threat to a possible victory for Xandee, the 12 points from Belgium had better go to a smaller country.

However, the entire affair seems to be much ado about nothing, as according to Belgian website eurosong.be the ARS president only advised that a vote for a weaker co-competitor might increase Xandee's chances of winning. “We wish Re-union all the best”, says Busschots — the example with the 12 points from Belgium to the Netherlands was only…an example. So perhaps it is all just gossip after all…