It is a trophy which football fans up and down the country hope to see raised by English players come the end of this summer’s European Championships.
But at an event in Ukraine Monday, a quite different group managed to get their hands on the prestigious Euro 2012 trophy. Private activists from a Ukrainian women’s rights group staged a second attack on the cup by grabbing it while it was on public display in the southeast of the country, which is jointly hosting the tournament with Poland. Inna Shevchenko, 21, an activist in the Femen group, peeled off her top, revealing the words ‘F**k Euro 2012’ on her torso.
She then grabbed hold of the 60cm-high cup while it was being exhibited in a central square in Dnipropetrovsk, according to a video clip released by Femen.
As security guards moved in on her, another activist, standing next to the cup, stripped off to the waist to display the same slogan. Femen organisers said the second activist was a 46-year-old French journalist from a French women’s magazine.
‘She also supports our struggle against sexism and prostitution and decided to take part,’ said Femen spokeswoman Anna Hutsol. Both women were detained by police. The Kiev-based Femen is focusing its Private protests for women’s rights on next month’s Euro 2012 soccer tournament.
Femen says Euro 2012, which will run in Ukraine from June 9 to July 1, will lead to a surge in prostitution in the former Soviet republic and entrench the country as a sex tourist destination in Europe.
It is threatening to carry out a blitz of stunts against the tournament. Another Femen activist staged a similar protest in Kiev earlier this month, seizing hold of the same cup while it was on public display in the capital.
The 8 kg Henri Delaunay cup is on a tour of Ukraine so Ukrainians can have souvenir photographs taken of themselves alongside it.
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