Spain is set to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest for a second consecutive year in protest over Israel’s continued participation.
RTVE president Jose Pablo Lopez announced on Tuesday that he will ask the public broadcaster’s board to extend Spain’s suspension for the 2027 contest, which will be held in Burgas, Bulgaria.
The proposal must still be formally approved by the board, although it is expected to receive sufficient support.
If confirmed, Spain will again be absent from the world’s biggest live music competition after withdrawing from the 2026 edition in Vienna alongside Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia.
Lopez announced the move while appearing before the parliamentary committee responsible for overseeing RTVE.
He said the broadcaster could not ignore the continuing suffering in Gaza and insisted that its position remained firm.
‘Nobody with the slightest human sensitivity can witness the suffering of the Palestinian people without a forceful condemnation,’ he said.
‘We have not looked the other way.’
RTVE has spent the past year lobbying the European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, to introduce stricter ethical and governance rules.
Spain called for tougher penalties against the political exploitation of the contest, greater transparency and stricter neutrality surrounding its commercial sponsors.
Lopez said the Spanish broadcaster had helped secure some important technical reforms but admitted that its principal objective to remove Israel had not been achieved.
‘I am not going to disguise reality with euphemisms,’ he said, adding that it remained ‘deeply painful’ that Israeli public broadcaster Kan would continue participating while the crisis in Gaza persisted.
Eurovision organisers have introduced a rule under which winning the competition will no longer automatically guarantee a country the right to host the following edition if it is involved in an armed conflict or faces a geopolitical situation that could affect security.
The EBU has also ended its sponsorship agreement with Israeli cosmetics company Moroccanoil after six consecutive editions.
RTVE nevertheless considers the changes insufficient, arguing that the organisation still has an ‘obvious outstanding issue in the ethical sphere’.
Ireland has already confirmed that it will neither compete in nor broadcast Eurovision 2027 while Israel remains involved.
The Netherlands has also withdrawn through broadcaster AVROTROS.
Iceland and Slovenia, which joined Spain’s boycott of the 2026 competition, have not yet confirmed their positions for next year, while Belgium has been granted additional time to make its decision.
