Spain: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calls for Israel's expulsion from the Eurovision Song Contest

(AFP) Spain´s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday that Israel should be excluded from the Eurovision song contest, deeming it necessary to be in "solidarity" with the "people of Palestine."

"What we cannot allow are double standards," Sanchez said during the presentation of a cultural report in Madrid, estimating that if Russia was punished with "not participating" in Eurovision for the invasion of Ukraine, "neither should Israel."

"Spain's commitment to international legality and human rights must be constant and must be consistent, also from Europe," Sánchez argued.

"That is why I believe that no one put their hands to their heads when Russia's invasion of Ukraine began three years ago, and demanded its exit" from "international competitions, and also the non-participation" in Eurovision.

"Therefore, Israel shouldn't do it either, because what we cannot allow is double standards, not even in culture. And from here, in any case, a message of solidarity to the people of Ukraine and the people of Palestine, who are experiencing the senselessness of war and bombings," he concluded.

Spain, which recognized the State of Palestine on May 28, 2024 along with Ireland and Norway, has in recent months become one of the most critical voices in the EU towards Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

On Saturday, Spanish public television RTVE defied the body responsible for Eurovision, which had urged it to stop making references to the Gaza offensive under threat of sanctions, by issuing a message of support for the Palestinians ahead of its broadcast of the event.

"In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine," RTVE wrote in white on a black background, in a message in Spanish and English, just seconds before the official start of the song contest.

In April, RTVE already asked the contest organizers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), for a "debate" on Israel's participation.

Sanchez's stance, who called on Saturday at an Arab League summit in Baghdad to intensify the "pressure on Israel to stop the massacre in Gaza," have cost Spain strong rebukes from Tel Aviv in recent months.

In the 2025 edition of Eurovision, organized in Basel, Switzerland, 37 candidates participated, chosen by national television stations and representing their country.

Austria won the contest and Israel came second. Israel's representative, Yuval Raphael, is a survivor of the October 7 Hamas bombings that sparked the war in Gaza.