SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster, has released a statement regarding its stance at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and the growing calls to exclude Israel from the competition.
In recent weeks numerous European broadcasters have threatened to withdraw from the competition if Israel is not excluded from ESC 2026 due to the war in Gaza.
The EBU has convened an extraordinary General Assembly in November in order to vote on Israel’s participation given the current geopolitcal scenario in the Middle East.
In the wake of the latest developments regarding ESC 2026 and growing international calls to exclude Israel from competing at the Eurovision Song Contest, SVT has released a statement regarding its position and Sweden’s participation at Eurovision 2026.
SVT’s CEO Anne Lagercrantz has hightlighted that Sweden’s participation is conditioned on three fundamental conditions:
- A broad European support for the competition is required
- The safety of participants and spectators must be guaranteed
- The competition should, as far as possible, be apolitical in accordance with EBU rules.
Anne Lagercrantz has also highlighted that there is not threat of a boycott from Sweden if Israel competes in the contest.
Anne Lagercrantz (SVT CEO) has given the following statement to SVT Nyheter’s Kultur department:
Many people want to know where SVT stands. SVT is independent – that is one of our cornerstones. We do not take a political position. It is we and no one else who makes the decision about our participation in ESC and the choices we make should not be interpreted as a position for or against any other country’s public service broadcaster or for or against any other country’s participation.
SVT’s participation is conditional on the basic conditions being in place. We will therefore spend time listening to the EBU and other member companies.
