RTVSLO, the Slovenian national broadcaster, has announced today that Slovenia will not compete at the forthcoming the Eurovision Song Contest 2026.
Slovenia thus joins Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands in the list of countries who have pulled out of the contest due to Israel’s participation at the competition in Vienna next year.
Following the outcome from today’s EBU’s General Assembly regarding the participation of Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 the Slovenian national broadcaster has decided to withdraw from the contest next year.
Natalija Gorščak (President of the Board of RTVSLO) told RTVSLO after the EBU’s meeting:
The question was very cleverly posed and probably misled many who wanted to vote on it. […] Slovenia will definitely not participate. The Spanish, Dutch and Irish will definitely not participate either.
Ksenija Horvat (RTVSLO Director) says:
RTVSLO was the initiator of the debate at the EBU level about the controversy surrounding Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. We believe that the EBU could have shown a principled and ethical stance here, and we regret that the association in which we participate was not capable of doing so. For more than a year, we have been warning that we cannot stand on the same stage with a representative of a country that caused the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We point out that Gaza is the only territory in the world where the work of foreign journalists is not possible and where people are still dying in unbearable humanitarian and security conditions.
Slovenia at Eurovision
Slovenia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993 with 1X Band and is yet to win the competition. The country’s best result in the contest is a 7th placing, achieved in 1995 (Darja Svajger) and 2001 (Nusa Derenda).
Slovenia has competed 30 times in the contest since their debut in 1993, the country has partaken in the competition religiously every year with the exception of 1994 and 2000 when the nation was forced to stay out of the event due to the relegation rules of the contest back then.
In 2025 Klemen represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel with his entry ‘How much time do we have left’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTS2L0VcaVI
