Senior Austrian Officials Demand Withdrawal From Hosting 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel Banned: Report

Shiryn Ghermezian

Israel’s representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the deadly Oct. 7 2023, attack by Hamas on the Nova festival in Israel’s south, holds an Israeli flag in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on Jan. 23, 2025. Photo: “The Rising Star,” Channel Keshet 12/Handout via REUTERS

Senior members of Austria’s ruling party, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), want the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) to refuse to host the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna next year if Israel is excluded from the competition, according to a local news outlet.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision, will hold a private vote online in mid-November to decide whether Israel’s broadcaster Kan should be banned from next year’s song contest because of Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The next Eurovision is scheduled to take place in May 2026 in Vienna. Several countries have already expressed support for a boycott of Israel from the competition and even threatened to pull out of the contest if the Jewish state is not barred, including Ireland, Spain, and The Netherlands.

ÖVP Chancellor Christian Stocker and State Secretary Alexander Pröll are supposedly behind-the-scenes trying to pressure both the ORF and the city of Vienna to withdraw hosting duties for the song contest if the EBU votes in support of boycotting Israel, according to the local publication OE24.

“It is impossible that exactly we should forbid a Jewish artist to come to Vienna,” an ÖVP representative told OE24. The news outlet added that if the ORF drops out of the Eurovision, it would have to pay a fine of up to 40 million euros (more than $46 million) to the new host city.

Vienna’s Mayor Michael Ludwig and ORF Director-General Roland Weißmann both previously said they support Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision. In an interview with the German-language publication Kurier, Austria’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Sepp Schellhorn called efforts to bar Israel’s Kan from the competition “dumb and pointless.” He added that is it “deeply problematic to confuse their roles with a country’s politics.”

Austria’s Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger sent a letter to her colleagues in Europe expressing “deep concern about the risk of division” within the EBU if Israel is banned from the Eurovision. Banning Israel or boycotting the event “would neither alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza nor contribute to a sustainable political solution,” she wrote. The Governor of Lower Austria Johanna Mikl-Leitner said in a Facebook post in September that a Eurovision competition without Israel “is unthinkable.”

“Especially now, during difficult times, Austria must take responsibility and stand with the Israeli people,” she said. “I would rather Austria ultimately host the Song Contest alone with Israel – than without Israel. Austria must take a stand.”