RTVSLO the national broadcaster of Slovenia has issued a public statement on its Eurovision Song Contest 2026 participation. A final decision will be ‘dependent on the moves of the EBU’. This relates to the broadcasters ongoing discussions with the EBU over the participation of Israel and concerns raised over the voting procedures in the previous two contests.
Slovenia considering withdrawal from Eurovision 2026?
Since 2024, Slovenia’s national broadcaster, RTVSLO has taken a strong position on concerns it has with the ongoing participation of Israeli broadcaster KAN, as well the voting in the contest. The broadcaster’s Director recently called for a ‘forensic audit‘ of the voting in Eurovision 2025.
Now, RTVSLO has given its strongest indication yet that withdrawing from the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna, Austria is a likely possibility.
“The final decision on the participation of RTV Slovenia at Eurovision 2026 will be adopted at the latest by the adoption of the annual plan (PPN for 2026). By this time, it should be clear whether the EBU will take any decision on Israel’s participation and whether it will take into account the comments of several EBU Member States on the transparency of the vote. It will be clear if RTV still wants to participate in this competition.
At the General Assembly of the EBU, which was held in London at the beginning of July, RTV Slovenia presented the position that if Israel competes in the Eurovision Song Contest – due to the genocide in Gaza – it will not participate in the competition. RTV Slovenia believes that the Eurovision Song Contest is not only attended by public media services such as the Israeli KAN, which has problems with the ruling politics in the country, but the country itself. For example, Belgium and Germany do not have one representative – one for each public service (RTBF and VRT or ZDF and ARD) – but one joint representative of the country from which the contractors come. The EBU is currently leading talks with members on Israel’s possible participation in the upcoming competition.
RTVSLO
This statement comes after it was recently announced that a potential national final for Eurovision 2026 was scrapped. Its cancellation came due to financial pressures and lack of certainty on its Eurovision future. RTVSLO Director Ksenija Horvat announced the news in a recent statement.
“We announced a new entertainment show for the second half of the year, the basis of which was the selection of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2026. We created the concept of the show, which from the beginning of October would build on the selection of young, new, fresh performers, which would lead us to the final selection for the Eurovision or EMA, which would then represent us at Eurovision.
As you know, a lot of things have happened in all this time, since April, there have been quite a few of our calls to the European Broadcasting Union to talk to us, smaller broadcasters, more about what rules it has for participating in the Eurovision Song Contest, we have sent some very concrete questions and suggestions. Last year we were more or less ignored, actually the same this year. We really think that we will not be able to go to the Eurovision Song Contest. We have also spoken about this publicly, if we cannot agree on an appropriate system of cooperation, then we will not be present.”
Recently it was confirmed that broadcasters have until mid-December to withdraw from Eurovision 2026 without taking a financial penalty.
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