The decision has been made. The president of RTVE, José Pablo López, will propose to the Corporation's Board of Directors, which will meet this Tuesday, that Spain not participate in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Austria, if the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) does not expel Israel from the Festival. Spain would be the first of the Big Five countries to make this decision.

This was announced by Marta Flich, on the premiere of Directo al grano , the afternoon programme on La 1. After laSexta announced this morning that part of the Board of Directors was going to ask López to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates, the presenter of Directo al grano dropped the bombshell half an hour into the programme:"The president of RTVE will propose tomorrow to the Board of Directors, which meets this Tuesday at 09.30, that if Israel participates in Eurovision 2026, Spain will withdraw."

Although the Eurovision Song Contest is not on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Directors, the statements made by the Executive and its partners, and the support for the pro-Palestinian protests at the Vuelta Ciclista a España by the Executive, have led the president of RTVE to put Spain's withdrawal on the table.

Currently, RTVE's Board of Directors is made up of 15 members, 11 of whom are appointed by the PSOE and its governing partners (Sumar, Podemos, PNV, ERC, and Junts), and another four elected by the Senate by the PP. It's clear that López will have the support of the governing partners, although if he doesn't have the support of the Board of Directors, he has the final say, since, since the Royal Decree on RTVE approved by the Government, the president of the Corporation has sole power over decisions. It does not depend on the Board's agreement. In other words, if López believes RTVE should not participate in Eurovision if Israel is there, he doesn't need to approve it in the Board. In fact, bringing the proposal to the Board of Directors is simply a formality of respect for the Board.

López's decision comes after the latest statements from several Government ministers, from President Pedro Sánchez himself, from Sumar and from Más Madrid requesting that RTVE withdraw from the Festival if the EBU did not expel the Israeli delegation.

Following last week's statements by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, on La Hora de La 1 opening the door to Spain not participating, this morning he once again insisted more forcefully on RNE."If we fail to expel Israel, Spain should not participate. We do not tolerate sporting and cultural events being used to whitewash genocide," the minister stated, intensifying his position that TVE should withdraw if the EBU continues to allow Israel to participate.

These statements add to those made this Sunday after the cancellation of La Vuelta, in which the ministers were very forceful:"We must do everything possible to ensure that Israel does not participate."

According to Urtasun,"all pressure measures" to prevent Israel from participating "must be on the table," including Spain's "direct and clear threat" not to participate in the event.

Last week, Urtasun sounded a bit more diplomatic in his statements, pointing out that"Israel's participation in international forums cannot be normalized as if nothing were happening" and suggesting that TVE consider its participation. Today, he was more forceful, echoing the statements of Sumar, a government partner, in which this Sunday they categorically demanded that Spain not participate in Eurovision if Israel did.

"Spain is part of the so-called Big 5, which provides a significant portion of the budget for Eurovision. Our withdrawal is key to ensuring that pressure on the organization is effective," stressed the group led by Yolanda Díaz. The group has also launched a petition to demand Israel's expulsion from the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, for which it has already collected some 5,000 citizen signatures.

In fact, hours later, Pedro Sánchez himself joined the movement to force Spanish Television to withdraw from Eurovision. The Prime Minister stated"clearly and emphatically" that until the "barbarism" ceases, neither Russia nor Israel should be included in any further international competition.

The debate opened with La Vuelta Ciclista should grow and reach all corners of the world, as is already happening, Sánchez pointed out, by insisting that Israel should not use any international platform to"whitewash its presence."

In this regard, he noted that sports organizations should consider whether Israel should continue to participate in international competitions, asking themselves why Russia was expelled after invading Ukraine but the same was not done with Israel after the invasion of Gaza.

This is a similar position to the one Sánchez put forward last May regarding the Eurovision Song Contest, when he defended that Israel should be excluded from the music competition, as was done with Russia, and from other similar events.

This already happened with the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. As the date approached, the Board of Directors discussed the measures to be taken regarding Israel's participation. At that time, without the support of all the directors, the Board agreed to send a letter to the EBU requesting a debate on Israel's expulsion. RTVE sent the letter, and the response from the EBU, the organization that organizes Eurovision, was very lax.

However, when the EBU sent RTVE a letter warning of the sanctions it faced following the comments made by public television commentators on Eurovision , Toni Aguilar and Julia Valera, when presenting Israel in the second semi-final and talking about the deaths caused in Gaza by Israel's response to Hamas terrorist attacks, RTVE decided to respond with a poster during the broadcast in which it made clear the Corporation's position:"In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine".

That response wasn't a decision discussed by the Board of Directors, precisely because the president of RTVE didn't need the Board's approval. In other words, if the management of the Public Corporation has already decided that if Israel goes to the Eurovision Song Contest, Spain will not participate, it's almost certain that this will happen pending the EBU hearing from all the countries that have already announced their withdrawal.

Last Friday, the Dutch public television channel AVROTROS joined the likes of Slovenia, Iceland and Ireland in making its presence at the Eurovision Song Contest conditional on Israel's participation. In Spain, RTVE has not yet made any official decision, although, following López's decision to raise the issue with the Council, everything seems to indicate that RTVE could be the next public television channel to snub the EBU if it does not expel Israel.

Since last June, RTVE's Director of Content Production, Ana María Bordas, has been the president of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Reference Group, the highest supervisory and decision-making body for the music competition.

During the last edition of the Festival, López already defended opening a joint reflection on the participation of Israeli public television in the contest."I believe that we cannot live with our backs to reality and think that the Eurovision Festival does not have a political dimension," he said in Parliament.