Anti-Israel boycotts might hurt Eurovision budget but not the show, Austrian host says

Four countries’ boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s participation could reduce the budget for next year’s edition in Vienna, but the show will be no worse for it, Austrian host broadcaster ORF said on Friday.

At a meeting on Thursday, national broadcasters that make up the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) cleared Israel to take part in the next contest in May.

That prompted Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia to say they were withdrawing over the war in Gaza, plunging the contest into one of its biggest-ever rows. Iceland, another harsh Israel critic that has called for it to be booted from the contest, said it would make its final decision on participation next week.

Austria was among the countries to come out most firmly in favor of Israel, and ORF chief Roland Weissmann visited Israel in the run-up to Thursday’s meeting to show his support.

“The show will not suffer in any way,” Weissmann told ORF radio, adding that those pulling out still had until mid-December to change their minds.

Spain is a member of the “Big Five” Eurovision nations, which give the biggest financial contributions to the competition alongside France, Germany, the UK and Italy. Ireland is also an important Eurovision nation, having won the competition a record seven times, tied with Sweden.

“Overall, it would of course be a financial burden if several countries didn’t participate, but we had already taken this into account … and this mainly affects the EBU, which has already factored this into its budget,” Weissmann said.

“I don’t see this being a problem in Vienna and even if there is a bit less, we’ll be able to compensate for it.”

Meanwhile, Belgium’s French-language public broadcaster confirmed that it would participate in the next Eurovision.

Belgium operates two public broadcasters — VRT in Flemish and RTBF in French — and they alternate taking part in the Eurovision each year. While VRT issued a clear position against Israel’s participation, RTBF, which is in charge of next year’s contest, said Friday that it would still take part.

Nevertheless, the broadcaster said its participation “comes with a commitment” that “no cultural celebration and no international event can overshadow the absolute necessity of protecting citizens and those who report from conflict zones.”

It was unclear how that commitment would be borne out. Last year, VRT aired a protest message against Israel ahead of the Eurovision broadcast.

While anti-Israel boycott activists have called for years for Israel to be kicked out of Eurovision, the campaign reached a fever pitch over the past two years, since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, which sparked the two-year war in Gaza.

But the EBU consistently rejected such calls, maintaining that Eurovision was a contest between national broadcasters, not countries, and that Kan continued to meet all the criteria to compete. No countries backed out of either the 2024 or 2025 competitions over Israel’s inclusion.

Nevertheless, the anti-Israel furor heavily overshadowed the two most recent song contests, with headlines dominated by the protests, threats, boos and drama. That furor drove a backlash among the pro-Israel public, which mobilized to vote for Eden Golan in 2024 and Yuval Raphael in 2025, sending them soaring in the popular vote and infuriating the anti-Israel fan base even further.