Spain Prime Minister: Exclude Israel from Eurovision
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Basel, as was the event of last year’s event in Malmö, was characterized by protests against Israel being allowed to participate despite the warfare in Gaza.
Among those who raised the question of the country’s participation was the Spanish broadcasting company RTVE, which before this year’s competition demanded a debate about Israel with ESC organizer EBU. Although the company was previously warned by the EBU of comments during Israel’s appearance, RTE also chose to show the text « Peace and justice to Palestine » in the box before the final broadcast.
Now also has Spain’s Prime Minister raised his voice, reports BBC. At a conference in Madrid, he said that Israel should be excluded from ESC. He compared when Russia was no longer allowed to participate in the competition after the country started its large -scale invasion of Ukraine.
« We cannot allow double standards within the culture, » Pedro Sánchez continued.
EBU has defended Israel’s involvement with ESC being a competition between broadcasters and not governments.
The final of this year’s ESC was held on May 17. Israel came in second place after Austria, which has received several broadcasters, including RTVE, that require an investigation of how voting went.
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