Spain’s state broadcaster is reportedly preparing to request an audit of the country’s Eurovision televoting results after an unexpected surge in support for Israel.
Officials at RTVE, which aired pro-Palestinian statements during the supposedly apolitical competition, have expressed “doubts” over the validity of the results, according to Spanish outlet El Pais.
Spain, whose government is among the most vocal critics of Israel’s war in Gaza, awarded Yuval Raphael’s New Day Will Rise zero points from its professional jury.
Yet the Nova massacre survivor received the maximum 12 points from the Spanish public as part of what wise widely reported to be the largest popular vote win in the competition’s history, seeing her place second in a narrow loss to Austria.
Sources at the broadcaster, though, told El Pais that it would be asking the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) , which organises the event, to audit the voting data.
Voting can be conducted in participating countries via the app (up to 20 votes per person at 99c each), by text message or by phone call. The vote is recorded as from the country where the SIM card of the device used originates.
The result of the televote in Spain was, according to the report, initially provided without voting numbers attached, with the EBU only providing the total number of votes cast in Spain as 142,688.
But a request from RTVE for more information reportedly revealed that it had received 7,283 calls, 23,840 text messages, and 111,565 online votes.
By comparison, during the first semi-final (which did not feature Israel) it reportedly received 774 calls, 2,377 text messages, and 11,310 online votes.
The gap between the voting numbers is partially explained by the significantly higher viewership attracted by the final, but RTVE still reportedly feels that the discrepancy warrants further investigation.
The report also suggests that the broadcaster is confident that its counterparts in a number of other nations will do the same.
No other participating countries were named by the sources, but several which have extremely Israel-critical governments also recorded significant televotes in Raphael’s favour, including Ireland and Slovenia.
Spain's state broadcaster RTVE displayed a pro-Palestine message ahead of the supposedly apolitical event (Image: X/@HenMazzig)[Missing Credit]
It comes after RTVE, along with Belgian network VRT, received a backlash from fans for broadcasting pro-Palestine messages just ahead of the start of the final.
Spanish viewers were greeted with a message reading: “When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine.”
During the broadcast, RTVE commentators Julia Varela and Tony Aguilar also referenced a petition by the network asking the EBU to reconsider Israel’s participation and stated that 50,000 civilians have died in Israel’s operations in Gaza, citing data compiled by the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
The moments prompted allegations that the channel has breached Eurovision’s rules against politicising the event by using the occasion to discuss the Gaza War.
