Yeah they need to think carefully to avoid the irony of that.
Honestly canât see Germany and Italy doing that. Why would they hitch their wagon to Israel.
Germany have been hitching their wagon to Israel in literally everything because of Never Again and all that, so probably actually will go through with it. I thought I saw something from KAN that said they had promises that Germany and Italy would follow them out, though I canât find it.
Close - from what I found, itâs a former delegation member speaking on another commercial news channel:
Speaking to N12News, Amir Alon, a former member of Israelâs Eurovision delegation, claimed that the public broadcasters of Italy and Germany have threatened to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is excluded without clear legal grounds.
[âŚ]
âAs long as the war in Gaza continues and images of the conflict reach European audiences, it will be difficult for countries like Italy and Germany to publicly defend Israel. These two countries are among the contestâs top financial contributors, are in direct communication with the EBU, and support KAN. If KAN is excluded, they have threatened to leave the contest as well â something the EBU wants to avoid.â
Quite a lot of things floating around at the moment - EBU denied proposing to Israel a temporary withdrawal or neutral flag option.
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Update
RTVE, the Spanish state broadcaster, announced the decision following a board vote on Tuesday.
The measure, proposed by RTVE president Jose Pablo Lopez, garnered 10 votes in favour, four against, and one abstention in the 15-member board, the broadcaster said in a statement.
With Spain joining the boycott, five countries have now indicated they may withdraw from Eurovision 2026 if Israel participates, including Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain.
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Immediate anti-Semitism accusation from the opposition leader in that country.
Great.
In all seriousness, how many dominoes have to fall before Israexit?
Knowing the EBU and how they screwed up the last two years of this, and the Joost Klein thing in 2023, theyâll hold out on making a decision untill the deadline in December, and theyâll end up somehow making one that leaves nobody happy.
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That was in 2024 iirc.
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Yeah, it was. I forgot this years already happened as this much stuff doesnât usually happen until the national selection processes start.
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could the EBU convince countries like Sweden or Switzerland to massively step up their participation fees to upgrade them to big 5 status in the event we see a German and Italian withdrawal?
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Probably not Switzerland, SRG SSR keep making budget cuts, and the current largest party in the Swiss Federal Assembly is right wing populist. You could probably, depending on how the Dutch election in october goes, get de AVROTROS, or whatever omroephuizen replaces them, to pay more, seeing as they pay the most outside of the Big 5 already.
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Would AVROTROS be willing to contribute further after the fiasco in 2024? I feel the relationship between the EBU and AVROTROS is still very much in the repair process
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The problem is, theyâre probably the only ones (non Big 5) who would be able to pay more if Germany and Italy do leave Eurosong. Most of the other public broadcasters are either too small to pay more without being sent into a spiralling debt, are already going through budget cuts, or have a government that would be very pissed off if any more money went to paying for wokeism/homosexual propaganda/western propaganda/generic right wing bogeyman.
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So true. Starting to really doubt their ability to make good decisions.
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Yes I highly doubt it. I think the Dutch are still seething to be honest.
I also doubt the Swiss would be keen. If I recall there was even a citizens referendum around them hosting it at all last year. Not unusual in Switzerland, but I really doubt thereâs an appetite to contribute more.
Israel just need to step back for a couple of years. The contest is being ruined by their block voting anyway. For me that is reason enough to exclude them, let alone all the other reasons.
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Yeah 100%. The voting alone is enough to exclude them. Itâs ruining the competition.
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Why on earth is Israel involved anyway when theyâre not technically part of Europe anyway? If the EBU is going to bend over backwards for Israel and let Spain and the others quit over it then theyâve truly lost the plot.
Knowing Israel theyâll probably churn out the usual accusation of âantisemitismâ against the EBU if they took any action.
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Eurovision isnât based on geography, and there are plenty of non-European countries eligible to compete.
However I agree the EBU have lost the plot if they allow Israelâs participation to cause core participants like big 5 member Spain to quit.
I can only assume thereâs money involved, and it makes me suspicious of whose money and where itâs going.
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