Will Slovenia compete at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna or is the country planning to withdraw from the competition?Is Slovenia’s participation at Eurovision 2026 in jeopardy?
RTVSLO, the Slovenian national broadcaster has stated that Slovenia’s participation at Eurovision 2026 is under question and that its decision depends on the EBU’s moves.
RTVSLO has presented its position to the EBU that it will not participate at the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates.
The Slovenian national broadcaster’s Communication Dept. has released the following statement regarding Slovenia’s Eurovision 2026 participation.
RTVSLO ‘s Communication Department’s statement reads:
The final decision on RTV Slovenia’s participation in Eurovision 2026 will be made no later than the adoption of the annual plan (PPN for 2026). By this time, it should be clear whether the EBU will make any decision regarding Israel’s participation and whether it will take into account the comments of several EBU member states regarding the transparency of voting. At that time, it will be clear whether RTV still wants to participate in this competition.
At the EBU General Assembly, which was held in London at the beginning of July, RTV Slovenia presented its position that if Israel were to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest – due to the genocide in Gaza – it would not participate in the competition. RTV Slovenia believes that the Eurovision Song Contest is not only attended by public media services, such as Israel’s KAN, which has problems with the ruling politics in the country, but also by the countries themselves. For example, Belgium and Germany do not each have two representatives – one for each public service (RTBF and VRT or ZDF and ARD) – but rather one common representative of the country from which the performers come. The EBU is currently holding talks with its members regarding Israel’s possible participation in the future competition.
The Director of RTVSLO gave the following statement during the 23rd regular session of the RTVSLO Council:
We realistically think that we will not be able to go to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Ksenija went on to add:
In the PPN (program and business plan, note a.) we announced a new entertainment show for the second half of the year, the basis of which was the selection of the Eurovision song in 2026. We were creating a concept for the show that would build on the selection of young, new, fresh performers from the beginning of October, which would lead us to the final selection for the Eurovision song, or EME, which would then represent us at the Eurovision song contest.
The RTVSLO Director concluded:
As you know, a lot has happened in the meantime, since April , there have been quite a few of our calls to the European Broadcasting Union to talk more with us, smaller television stations, about what rules it has for participating in the Eurovision Song Contest, we sent some very specific questions and proposals. Last year we were more or less ignored, this year it’s actually the same. We realistically think that we won’t be able to go to the Eurovision Song Contest. We have also spoken about this publicly, if we can’t agree on an appropriate system of cooperation, then we won’t be there.
The Slovenian national broadcaster has requested the EBU to have an open discussion regarding the Eurovision Song Contest and answer its questions regarding the ESC participation given the current geopolitical global events and scenario.
The EBU is currently undertaking a wide-ranging consultation with its Member broadcasters around participation in the Eurovision Song Contest.
While this is ongoing, the EBU would like provide broadcasters with additional flexibility and clarity in finalizing their application to take part in next year’s event.
The deadline for broadcasters to withdraw their Eurovision 2026 applications without suffering a financial penalty has been extended to mid-December from its initial date (13th October) due to the given circumstances.
