opinion
struggle for entry
Australia throws Djokovic out: It’s the right move against a ruthless ignoramus
Novak Djokovic in Melbourne on his way to the court hearing
© James Ross / DPA
Australia has thrown the tennis world number one out of the country. It’s the right decision because the tennis star broke all the rules. And thus presents an attitude that stands for many opponents of vaccination and corona deniers.
Novak Djokovic could be back in Dubai by now. Immediately after the federal court ruled that the Australian government’s withdrawal of his visa was legal, the world number one tennis player drove to Melbourne airport with his entourage and left the country he had banned for eleven days. The Australian Open will take place without the superstar and record winner, but most Australians should welcome the end of this miserable farce. According to a poll, 70 percent of Australians were in favor of deportation. Djokovic had actually managed to antagonize a large majority of people. This fact alone says a lot.
Regardless of that, the decision to throw the stubborn Serb out of the country is the right one. Djokovic lied, tricked and deceived that the bars bend. At some point you can no longer hope for tolerance on the other side, for a certain understanding along the lines of: “Hey, he is opposed to vaccination, but we accept that because we naturally allow other opinions and views.”
Novak Djokovic didn’t follow any rules
No, Djokovic didn’t just make formal mistakes – like falsely stating that he hadn’t traveled 14 days before entering Australia on January 5 (he was in Spain for training, this mistake alone would have, strictly speaking, been enough for an expulsion) – , his behavior after his infection in December has shown him to be at least a mindless egoist living in his own universe. He did not comply with quarantine rules, nor did he inform about his infection while doing PR appointments with children in Serbia and a photo shoot in France. He is a declared opponent of vaccination. His stance on the pandemic is, to put it mildly, questionable.
It is precisely this circumstance on which Immigration Minister Alex Hawke based his reasoning for revoking Djokovic’s visa. He feared the Serb would become an anti-vaccination icon, with dire consequences for fighting the pandemic. Hawke saw this as a “public health” risk. And that’s exactly what the three Australian judges recognized when they passed the verdict.
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But more questionable than Djokovic’s stance on the pandemic, and that’s the real problem, is the disregard for those who play by the rules to fight the pandemic effectively.
You can ask the question: Even if you can and have to live with Djokovic’s attitude towards Corona, why can’t someone like that be considerate and accept the entry rules? Why can’t one of the greatest tennis players of all time, who likes to present himself publicly as a philanthropist, come to terms and give up, simply out of respect for a majority dissenting opinion? Why can’t you demand a little empathy from someone like Djokovic for the victims of the pandemic, for the survivors of the dead, the overworked doctors and nurses, the families and children in lockdown, the fears of the elderly? Just because he wants to win his tenth title in this one tournament?
Djokovic represents the behavior of many opponents of vaccination worldwide
In the course of the year, three more Grand Slam tournaments follow, in which he can achieve his 21st Grand Slam success. And in a year the Australian Open will take place again. Or Djokovic would have simply followed the rules since December. He would have kept his visa as unvaccinated (probably) and fought for the title starting Monday. Maybe in a historic final against Nadal. What a party that would have been.
But instead there was an entry farce. In truth, like many opponents of vaccination around the world, he is behaving in an uninhibitedly selfish manner and with a striking ruthlessness towards all those who follow the rules in order to finally get the wretched pandemic under control. Djokovic represents the attitude of many opponents of vaccination and corona deniers, who act as freedom fighters and guardians of their own rights, and who want to know exactly what freedom means, but don’t care about the freedom of others. So it’s spot on that Australia kicked Djokovic’s butt, to put it bluntly.