ESC infuriates antisemitic heads of state
Just two days after the ESC final on May 17, 2025, in Basel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez publicly stated that Israel had no right to participate in the ESC. Sanchez placed the Jewish state on the same level as Russia, which had been excluded from the ESC after its attack on Ukraine in 2022. The bone of contention for the Spanish prime minister was Israel's military action in the Gaza war.
Of course, Sanchez could no longer change the fact that Israeli singer Yuval Raphael had come in second place at the ESC in Basel. So Spain, together with several other nations, called for Israel to be excluded from participating in the 2026 ESC in Vienna. In September 2025, Spain increased the pressure and threatened to cancel its participation in Vienna if Israel were allowed to participate.
However, the ESC's governing body, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Geneva, refused to comply with these demands. At its general assembly at the end of November 2025, the majority of state TV stations voted against Israel's exclusion.
As a result, the president of the Spanish state media criticized what had happened at the EBU meeting, confirming that the Eurovision Song Contest was no longer a music competition but a festival dominated by geopolitical interests. Spain announced that it would not participate in the ESC 2026. The Netherlands, Slovenia, Ireland, and Iceland followed suit. These nations had also demanded Israel's expulsion.
Jewish global conspiracy?
It is encouraging that 35 nations resisted the boycott of Israel. The fact that five state media outlets are openly promoting fatal anti-Semitism is a red flag of the highest order.
Spain's statement that the ESC is “dominated by geopolitical interests” is reminiscent of the darkest times in world history. The Nazis themselves justified their reign of terror in large part by accusing the Jews of seeking to rule the world. In doing so, the Nazis relied heavily on the maliciously misleading publication “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
When left-wing Spain today murmurs about geopolitical interests, Pedro Sanchez & Co. reveal that they are not primarily concerned with the “poor Palestinians” who finally deserve a state. Rather, Spain's anti-Semitic leadership criticizes the geopolitics of the US, which, as Israel's protective power, has supposedly long been under the dictates of Jewish world conspirators.
Since Spain's prime minister believes in the “Jewish world conspiracy,” it is clear that he also has a grossly distorted perception of the Gaza war. This becomes clear when Pedro Sanchez compares Israel to Russia (attack on Ukraine in February 2022). Spain is engaging in the perpetrator-victim reversal that is extremely popular in anti-Semitic circles. Sanchez describes Israel as the aggressor, as if the Jews had started the Gaza war. The mass terror perpetrated by Hamas is ignored as much as possible.
"Death to the Jews!"
Pedro Sanchez also fails to mention in his ESC votes that the population of Gaza tolerates, supports, and greatly reveres Hamas. He also fails to mention that the vast majority of Palestinians support driving Israel out of the region “from the river to the sea.” In addition, anti-Semitic Western politicians stubbornly refuse to listen when the hatred of Islamic masses cries out to the world: “Death to the Jews!”
None of these facts seem to bother Pedro Sanchez. It even appears that Spain and a growing number of Western nations are uncritically adopting the content of Palestinian propaganda. As a result, the population of Gaza is being portrayed as the real victims of the war.
It is very alarming that Western governments are promoting hatred against Israel. Just recently, in September 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian nation. Canada and Australia have also bowed to the canon. As a result, more than 150 UN member states now recognize Palestine and demand a two-state solution as the only way to achieve a just peace in the Middle East.
What the “high and mighty” overlook is that all the talk of a “two-state solution” is moot as long as the Palestinians do not recognize Israel as a nation. But there is no room for such attention and logic in the furor against Jerusalem.
A sweetener from the EBU to anti-Semitic governments
Since the ESC organizers resisted the boycott call from Spain and others, an escalation has been averted for the time being. The ESC will probably survive the withdrawal of the five nations in 2026.
However, it should not be overlooked that Israel's brilliant result at the ESC 2025 is unlikely to be repeated. The EBU has taken appropriate precautions by giving the national juries significantly more influence on the final ESC result again from 2026 onwards. This makes a good placing for Israel increasingly unlikely. This is because the jurors from the state media will most likely vote in line with their governments' views.
This was already abundantly clear in Basel in 2025. Ideologically biased juries punished Israel with 60 votes, placing it in 15th place. It was only televoting that brought Israel its breakthrough. Millions of friends of Israel from all over the world invested their money and gave Yuval Raphael a glorious 2nd place (297 votes). Thus, the ESC 2025 in Basel did not radiate any sign of hostility toward Israel, as had been planned and promoted in many quarters. Rather, the ESC Basel stands for the deep attachment of many people to the “Jewish state” that Theodor Herzl, in his own words, founded in Basel in 1897.
Of course, complaints quickly arose from the highest levels that Israel had swindled the many votes in the televoting through unfair advertising and hacker attacks. Spain complained to the EBU that the public voting had been politicized by the Middle East conflict. This endangered the cultural character of the ESC, they said. The voting system needed to be reviewed.
The Spanish demand for the “depoliticization of the ESC” could not be more hypocritical. Spain's hostility toward Israel is highly political. After the semi-finals in May 2025, the EBU even had to warn the Spanish state broadcaster not to show any political messages during ESC live broadcasts. Nevertheless, immediately before the ESC final, the Spanish broadcaster once again published a message: “In view of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine.”
“ESC Elite” shatters the influence of fans
Although Spain had strongly opposed the EBU, its call for an “apolitical ESC” was successful. At its AGM in November 2025, the EBU radically changed the criteria for televoting. The EBU Director General wrote in an open letter: “The neutrality and integrity of the Eurovision Song Contest are of paramount importance to the EBU, its members, and our entire audience.” To guarantee this apolitical neutrality, the power of the juries was increased and the influence of fans in the nations was significantly reduced.
The number of televotes was reduced from 20 votes to 10 votes per voting method (SMS, phone call, online vote with credit card). The juries are making a comeback in the semi-finals and will have a say there. The number of jury members will be increased from five to seven. The voting system that helped Israel to second place in 2025 will therefore be abolished. The ESC is returning to the 2009 model, in which juries and televoters each award half of the points. The power of so-called experts will therefore be massively increased.
Of course, these changes will not make the ESC any more neutral. Quite the contrary! Politicization will be fueled to an extreme degree. From ESC Vienna 2026 onwards, ideologically trained, state-loyal jurors will most likely use their higher-weighted votes to ensure that, in addition to gender politics, Palestinian politics finally receives its rightful place in the Western public sphere.
JJ, the androgynous winner of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, received 258 points from the oh-so-neutral juries. More than anyone else. Four times more than Israel (!). After the non-binary Nemo (2024), the juries in 2025 strictly apolitically lifted another representative of the gender lobby onto the winner's podium. From 2026 onwards, they will probably do their utmost to ensure that no singer from Israel ever appears in the top ranks again.
Perhaps Pedro Sanchez and the other anti-Semitic leaders will then finally grasp the subtlety of the EBU's measures: not simply excluding Israel from the ESC, but sidelining the Jewish delegation and its fans through “neutral, apolitical” measures. Conclusion: regrettable and highly dangerous hostility toward Israel on both sides.