Spain has not participated in Eurovision this year, for the first time in the 65 years of the contest, and RTVE has not broadcast the festival. It has been one of the five countries absent in the edition, along with Slovenia, Ireland, Iceland, and the Netherlands, in protest against the presence of Israel in the festival. However, it can return next year without any problem if it wishes, and there should be no problem for it to return to the Big Five (Italy was out for several years and then returned).
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The deadline to decide is December, when the registration period for the contest closes. The director of RTVE, José Pablo López, however, has been very critical this week of the festival’s organization, saying that the “management has lost its way” and stated on his X account that Eurovision “urgently needs a new era worthy of the values it has always defended.”
This has been the Eurovision edition with the fewest participants since 2004. A total of 35 countries have taken part in the festival: Moldova, Sweden, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Georgia, Finland, Montenegro, Estonia, Israel, Belgium, Lithuania, San Marino, Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Romania, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Armenia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Latvia, Denmark, Australia, Ukraine, Albania, Malta, Norway, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Of these, only 25 have reached tonight’s final after the two semifinals.
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Last year, 37 countries participated. Despite the five absences, the difference with this year is not so large because three nations, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova, have returned to the festival after some years of absence due to economic or other difficulties. The director of the European Broadcasting Union, Martin Green, said this week that they will “do everything possible to bring them back.”
“The Eurovision festival is a contest, but human rights are not. There is no room for indifference. Peace and justice for Palestine.” This has been the message shown by RTVE this Saturday, just before the 9:00 PM news. Additionally, on Friday, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, showed his support for the Spanish public television’s decision not to participate in the contest. He did so in a video he shared on his social networks.
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