Sánchez calls for Israel to be expelled from Eurovision

BarcelonaSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has explicitly called for Israel to be removed from the Eurovision Song Contest. He did so during an event in which he presented data on the impact of culture on the economy. Before addressing the issue, he said: "No one stood in shock when Russia's invasion of Ukraine began three years ago and was required to withdraw from no less than international competitions, and also, as we saw this weekend, from Eurovision. Therefore, Israel should not do so either, because we cannot stop."

Meanwhile, tensions are growing between RTVE and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). State media have questioned the Eurovision televoting system and are calling for a debate on whether it is truly an appropriate tool for measuring musical quality or whether it reflects a political mood, particularly in relation to armed conflicts. This is explained by the network in a statement, which also details that it has requested information from the festival organizers regarding the votes cast in Spain (which determined that Israel received the highest possible score, 12 points). During the final, 7,283 calls, 23,840 text messages, and 111,565 online votes were received in Spain.

"Several countries will make the same request, considering that the televoting is affected by the current armed conflicts, which could cause the ceremony to lose its cultural essence," the statement details. Regarding the request for more information in the Spanish case, it reveals that "at this time, the only way to know is, after requesting the data from the EBU, the number of votes and how they were cast." Specifically, there is suspicion of an organized campaign by Israel to gain dominance in these votes, as a way to whitewash its actions in the Gaza Strip. The Netanyahu government admitted, in the last edition, to having promoted a campaign to ensure a good result in the televote. In fact, the Israeli representative, Yuval Raphael, only received 60 points from the professional jury. She won silver thanks to the 297 points from the votes from home, a figure not achieved by any other country.

Although there were some Palestinian flags in the Basel pavilion where the last Eurovision Song Contest was held, and although there were whistles from the Israeli delegation, the production of the television event was edited so that they could not be seen or heard. The EBU justifies this policy in the name of allegedly avoiding politicization of the song contest. In this regard, it demanded that RTVE not comment on what several international organizations consider a genocide in Gaza, considering that it could affect the evaluation of the performances. It is certainly sponsored by Moroccanoil, an Israeli company. The network complied, but just before the broadcast began, it inserted a black sign that read: "In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine."

Meanwhile, the audience figures confirmed the contest's continued good health. Eurovision 2025 became the most-watched Eurovision event in Spain in the last seventeen years. The gala achieved a spectacular 50.1% audience share, with almost 6 million viewers on average, representing an increase of nearly a million followers. The voting process achieved 6.3 million viewers and a 59.7% share. With these results, both the gala and the voting reached their highest audience since 2022, the second best share since 2008 and the second best number of viewers since 2018.

In Catalonia, the following of the voting was even greater: 1,026,003 viewers and one viewer shareOn the other hand, the gala fell slightly behind the national average: 49.8% share and 966,000 viewers.