In a shocking move, the leaders of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker and State Secretary Alexander Pröll announced that if there is a boycott against Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, set to be held in Vienna, then Austria’s national broadcaster ORF should not host Eurovision, the website Eurovision Fun reported on Wednesday.
The Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU), the body that runs the Eurovision Song Contest, recently announced that its general assembly will hold a vote in November on whether Israel can participate. This vote had been planned for December but was suddenly moved up.
International pressure to boycott Israel
There has been pressure to hold this vote from various European public broadcasters, and several countries have already announced that they will not take part in the 2026 song contest if Israel takes part, because of the war in Gaza.
Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and Iceland have all announced they will not participate if Israel takes the stage. Spain’s decision is especially significant because it is one of Eurovision’s “big five” sponsors, along with France, Italy, Germany, and the UK.
Other countries have offered support. Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz previously said that Germany would also withdraw from the contest if Eurovision were to boycott Israel, noting that he feels Germany has “historical responsibility.”
Refusing to host the song contest would be difficult for Austria in many ways, because the country agreed to host in 2026 if it came in first in 2025, which it did, when JJ of Austria won for the song, “Wasted Love.” It could face a potential penalty fee of up to 40 million euros.
According to Eurovision Fun, the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, has said that excluding Israel would be “a serious mistake.” But the city reportedly still plans to host the event. The website also cited reports that heated discussions have begun between Stocker and Ludwig to stem the crisis.
When there were calls to kick Israel out in 2024 and 2025 due to the war, the EBU issued statements repeatedly saying that Eurovision is not a competition between governments, but between public broadcasters, and that KAN, Israel’s public broadcaster, had not violated its rules. Russia was suspended from the competition following its invasion of Ukraine because its public broadcaster broke EBU rules by broadcasting government propaganda. KAN receives government funds, but its content is independent, and it has, in fact, angered the government so much that Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has threatened to shut it down and has tried to pass legislation to dismantle it. KAN remains a member in good standing of the EBU.
Israel's historic participation
Israel has been taking part in Eurovision, which was established after World War II to provide a forum for peaceful competition among nations, since 1973. It has won the competition four times, in 1978, 1979, 1998, and 2018. Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre, came in second overall in 2025, winning the audience voting with the song, “New Day Will Rise,” an anthem of resilience in the face of tragedy. Several countries whose contestants trailed Raphael accused Israel of cheating in various ways in 2025, claims that the EBU dismissed. Israel’s 2024 contestant, Eden Golan, finished in fifth place with the second-highest score in the audience voting. Israel’s high scores with audiences indicate that while public officials in some European countries don’t want Israel to take part, Eurovision viewers do enjoy Israel’s performers.
The debate over Israel’s participation in 2026 is just heating up, and you can expect many other Eurovision participating countries to weigh in during the coming days.