Spain not to participate in Eurovision 2026 unless Israel is banned from participating

Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun has joined Slovenia’s national broadcaster in threatening to withdraw their country’s participation in Eurovision 2026 if Israel is not banned, Euronews writes.

“I don’t think we can normalize Israel’s participation in international events as if nothing is happening.”

During an interview on La hora de La 1 on TVE, Urtasun said that Israel’s participation in the contest cannot be tolerated.

He continued: “In Eurovision’s case, it is not an individual artist who participates but someone who participates on behalf of that country’s citizens.”

Urtasun said that if Israel participated in 2026 “and we fail to expel it, measures will have to be taken” – as cited by the Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia – and reminded viewers that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez previously called on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision Song Contest, to ban Israel from the international competition.