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RTVE's president José Pablo López spoke before the Joint Parliamentary Control Commission to finalize RTVE's position on the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.

Spain will not participate if Israel does because "The Eurovision Song Contest is a competition, but human rights are not a contest," said López. He continued saying that the rules of the contest are not being enforced, expressing that if any other nation used Eurovision in the same manner that Israel does, they would've been expelled.

López also added that he received a letter from the director general of the EBU, Noel Current, which stated that as a result of Spain's pressures, "a series of measures will be adopted to protect the Festival." López has said that these changes are not enough for him: "From here it manifests that they are not sufficient or guarantee the interference of the Government of Israel or any other government. For them the contest is more than a contest and has a very important political derivative."

[Source]

Three directors at Rai, the Italian public broadcaster, Alessandro di Majo, Davide Di Pietro and Roberto Natale, have called for Italy to back out of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest as a result of Israel's participation.

In a statement, the directors said that Italy needs to stand with the public out cry to support Palestine and that Israel's participation is directly against the contest's core values of "peace, inclusion, respect and brotherhood," as a result of the nation's human rights violations. The directors continued by saying that Italy's continued participation in Eurovision would be a "silent [legitimization]" of the genocide in Gaza.

[Source]

During the second Semi-Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, Spanish commentators Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela made comments during the Israeli performance about the war in Palestine. The commentators mentioned the high death toll and the two questioned if Israel should be allowed to participate in the contest. The pair made no disrespectful comments or criticisms of Israel's representative, Yuval Raphael, during this discussion.

After a complaint was made by the Israeli delegation, the EBU threatened Spanish broadcaster RTVE with possible fines if similar comments were made at the Grand Final. Aguilar and Varela did not make any comments during the Grand Final about Israel, and instead simply introduced the performance. However, before Eurovision was broadcast on RTVE, a message was shown to viewers in both Spanish and English that read:

"In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine."

As of writing, RTVE has not received any complaints or sanctions from the EBU over this statement.

Moreover, Telediario de La 1 and RTVE have drawn into question the current televoting system and have asked to discuss with the EBU if wartime conflicts effect the system. RTVE has also requested an audit of how the Spanish televote was distributed to each nation.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has also called for Israel to be banned from the Eurovision Song Contest saying:

"Spain’s commitment to human rights must be constant and consistent, including in Europe.

"If Russia was required not to participate in Eurovision after the invasion of Ukraine, neither should Israel. We cannot allow double standards, not even in culture."

Sánchez has been very vocal about Spain's support of Palestine.

[Sources]

"RTVE pide a Eurovisión abrir un debate sobre el televoto y «si los conflictos bélicos lo condicionan»," abc.es.

Pedro, thank you for having a backbone. THANK YOU.

They wanna play games, we also know how to play.