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Eurovision Denies Claims of Vote Rigging as Spanish PM Calls for Israel’s Exclusion From Cultural Events
Yuval Raphael from Israel with the title “New Day Will Rise” on stage at the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in the Arena St. Jakobshalle. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa via Reuters Connect
The director of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Monday defended the results of this year’s competition in response to accusations about voting being rigged in favor of Israel, which finished second place in the grand final on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland.
At the same time, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for Israel to be excluded from all international cultural events, including the Eurovision Song Contest, because of its military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
National broadcasters from Spain and Belgium have expressed doubts about Israeli singer Yuval Raphael finishing first place in the public vote (televoting) and second place in the grand final with her song “New Day Will Rise.” Austrian singer JJ won first place with his song “Wasted Love” and a total of 436 points, while Raphael finished with 357 points.
Raphael received the most votes from the public at 297 — more than any of the 26 finalists — but ranked 14th in the jury vote, which resulted in her second-place finish in the Eurovision grand final.
Eurovision Director Martin Green defended the reliability of the results, saying there has been no indication of “bias or irregularities” in the voting for this year’s contest.
“The televoting system currently used in Eurovision is considered the most advanced in the world today, combining advanced verification processes, data security mechanisms, and analytical review of voting patterns,” Green said in a statement. “[T]here is no suspicion of bias or irregularities in the awarding of points — not even in relation to the full score given to Israel by Spanish viewers.”
“It is important to emphasize that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country’s result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns,” Green added. “An independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result. Our voting partner Once has confirmed that a valid vote was recorded in all countries participating in this year’s Grand Final and in the Rest of the World.”
Martin Österdahl, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)’s executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, echoed similar sentiments about voting results being reliable in a statement to the EFE news agency. Like Green, he also mentioned that voting results are verified by the independent auditing firm and Dutch company Once.net and reviewed by compliance supervisors.
Spain’s national broadcaster Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) has urged the EBU, which coordinates the Eurovision, for an audit of the results from Saturday night after Raphael received 12 points — the maximum amount given — from televoters in Spain, despite public protests in the country against Israel’s participation in the competition. RTVE previously called for Israel’s participation in future Eurovision contests to be up for debate because of the Israel-Hamas war.
Immediately before broadcasting the grand final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, RTVE broadcast a message in Spanish and English that called for “Peace and Justice for Palestine.” RTVE could be fined for the messaging since the EBU has said Eurovision must remain an apolitical competition. The EBU already threatened the Spanish national broadcaster that it could be fined for broadcasting messages about Gaza.
“We take every broadcaster’s concerns seriously,” Österdahl told EFE, before adding that Eurovision organizers have been in contact with RTVE about their concerns since the grand final.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a longtime critic of Israel, on Monday compared the Jewish state to Russia, which was banned from international events like the Eurovision after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He accused the global community of displaying a “double standard” when it comes to the treatment of Israel, and said the Jewish state should not be allowed to participate in cultural events around the world amid the war in Gaza.
“I think that nobody was shocked three years ago, when Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, they were excluded from international competitions. For example, we recently saw it this past weekend at Eurovision. Therefore, Israel should not do so either,” Sanchez said at a conference in Madrid. “We cannot allow these double standards, not even in culture events.”
The Spanish premiere also expressed solidarity with “the people of Ukraine and the people of Palestine, who are experiencing the senselessness of war and bombing.”
On Monday, the Flemish public broadcaster VRT also called for more transparency from the EBU regarding the voting for this year’s Eurovision.
“We have no indication that the counting of the televotes wasn’t carried out correctly, but we are asking for complete transparency on the part of the EBU,” said VRT’s spokesperson Yasmine Van der Borght. “The question is above all whether the current system guarantees a fair reflection of the opinion of viewers and listeners.”
The VRT also said it supports RTVE’s concerns about Israel’s participation in future Eurovision contests and again issued an “explicit call to engage in debate with all nations, out of a genuine commitment and concern for the survival of the contest.” VRT said it will reconsider its own participation in future Eurovision competitions if the EBU does not address its concerns about the contest.
“We at the VRT note that the Eurovision Song Contest as it is currently organized has become less and less a unifying and apolitical event. It is increasingly at odds with its original standards and values and with the standards and values of public broadcasting,” the broadcaster said in a statement. “At many levels the VRT collaborates well with the EBU. However, without serious answers with regard to our concerns about the Eurovision Song Contest we will question our future participation.”
During the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest this year, VRT broadcast a message about alleged human rights violations by Israel in Gaza, freedom of the press, and called for a ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The message said: “This is industrial action. We condemn the violations of human rights by the State of Israel. Furthermore, the State of Israel is destroying freedom of the press. That’s why we interrupt the picture for a moment. #CeasefireNow #StopGenocide.” VRT did the same during the second semi-final of the Eurovision contest last year.
The post Eurovision Denies Claims of Vote Rigging as Spanish PM Calls for Israel’s Exclusion From Cultural Events first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.