RTVE confirms that Spain will not participate in Eurovision if Israel continues.

https://elpais.com/television/2025-09-16/espantada-en-eurovision-espana-quinto-pais-que-confirma-su-retirada-si-israel-participa-en-2026.html

by kidno777

33 comments

  1. On Tuesday morning, the Board of Directors of RTVE approved Spain’s withdrawal from Eurovision if Israel participates in the festival. This measure was proposed by the corporation’s president, José Pablo López, who already anticipated this debate this spring, before and during the 2025 edition, held in Basel (Switzerland).

    RTVE’s announcement comes after recent proposals by several members of the Spanish government in favour of Spain leaving Eurovision in defence of human rights. The Spanish public broadcaster thus joins those of the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland, which in recent weeks have assured that they will not share the stage with Israel, whose offensive on Gaza has already caused 65,000 deaths, mostly civilians. However, Spain’s case is more significant, as it is the first member of the Big Five, the five main financiers of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to withdraw from the competition, triggering a major crisis within the contest. But there are still three months to go before we know what will happen: it will be at the beginning of December at the EBU meeting.

    According to RTVE sources, the Council approved this measure with 10 votes in favour, four against and one abstention. The members who supported this measure were López himself, along with Esther de la Mata (former press officer for the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños), Angélica Rubio, Rosa León and Mercedes de Pablos (these five proposed by the PSOE); Sergi Sol, for ERC; Marta Ribas and María Teresa Martín, for Sumar; Mariano Muniesa, for Podemos; María Roncesvalles Solana, for the PNV (all of them approved by Congress). Miquel Calçada Olivella, alias Mikimoto, a member proposed by Junts, abstained, and the four members of the PP voted against: Eladio Jareño, Rubén Moreno, Ignacio Ruíz Jarabo and Marina Vila (in their case approved by the Senate, which is controlled by their party).

  4. Sounds like this year’s contest will be quite a bit smaller. 

  6. the crazy thing is EUROvision would rather exclude several EUROpean countries rather than kick out israel

  8. I find it funny they all do this preformative act but when Azerbaijan was doing ethnic cleansing in Armenia no one gave a shit. It’s just an act at the end of the day nothing more…

  9. Actually this is big, because Spain is one of Big 5.

  10. I approve. Now do same in football. Say you will withdraw if Israel keeps playing. Dont wait for UEFA or FIFA to do something. Oh, not willing to go so far?

  11. Let’s hope more make the same decision. And none of this netural flag crap either.

  12. Spain 👍

    Wish my country had the spine to do this.

  13. I wish there had been this much commotion regarding Azerbaijan…

  15. I hope to see plenty of other big countries declining to participate.
    Already, over the last two years, the results were extremely suspicious in favor of Israel. There have been some bizarre voting irregularities from Israel.
    And that’s just on the contest side.

    In my opinion, Israel should be excluded from all international competitions.
    Enough is enough, they’re committing genocide and invading Palestine. No reason to be lenient towards them

  16. Let s be honest, Israel is turning into dictatorship with ultraorthodox lunatics at the lead.

    They broke the rules , make fun of Armenians.

    And that is the reason they should be excluded ( we have that example with Belarus just a few years ago).

  18. Wow, an Israel-critical post actually made it through the mod-filter?

  19. The right thing to do, if anything it should have been done before. Israel is a freaking genocidal state.

  23. Proud of my country! I hope this inspires many more to join those boycotting.

  24. Isreal is much more of an evil than Russia. The Russia-Ukraine war is a war based on the geo political balance of power in a region that was united for 400 years up until 1991. Any nation with a hostile alliance growing on its border (NATO with Russia) would react similarly, look for example at how the US reacted to Cuba joining the Warsaw Pact in the early 60s or how it reacted to Spanish decolonisation in the Caribbean and Central America in the late 19th century (Spanish American War). The best historical comparison to Russia and Ukraine is the pre WW1 Balkans war triggered by the fall of Ottoman influence (think USSR in our timeline) to be replaced by the Austro Hungarian Empire (Think EU/Nato today)

    Where as Isreal is a settler state committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in order to expand its territory and remove the indigenous population of Palestine

  25. Good riddance. A childish country leaving an idiotic contest.

  26. How TF 740+ Million European people bend knee to 9M Middle Eastern country
    Insane

  27. I think we should do this:

    Let Germany, the UK and Israel have Eurovision.

    Create our own Eurovision with the rest of the countries.

    I think its pretty obvious which one wont be watched and will crumble financially lol

  28. Tragic, such an important and crucial event to our very being – the Eurovision, and it might not feature Spain. I am truly shaking, crying and shitting my pants after hearing these news

  29. What’s the deal with Eurovision? Is it just a song contest? People seem to make such a big deal out of it there must be something special about it that I’m missing.

  30. Explain to me why a non EU country gets to destroy the Eurosong. Why not only European country’s?

  32. Israel isn’t even a European country.

    Eurovision was created to unify after WWII.

    If this is what unity is, why are we even bothering as a species anymore?

  33. Reminder that even though your country might still participate if Israel is permitted to take part in Eurovision, you don’t have to watch it.

    Me personally, I’m a Croat whose government is like the one in Germany and Italy supporting this genocidal nation, but I won’t watch it and will boycott it myself. 

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