Spanish
Madrid.– The public corporation RTVE announced that this Monday it will formally request the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) an audit of the televoting system applied in the Eurovision 2025 final, after receiving with surprise that the Spanish public awarded its maximum score, 12 points, to the representative of Israel.
According to sources close to the entity, the request arises after the EBU sent a first general report without specifying the number of votes per country. Subsequently, after insistence from RTVE, a second document was sent detailing 142,688 votes cast from Spain: 7,283 calls, 23,840 SMS and 111,565 votes via the internet. However, the breakdown of which country each vote went to is still not provided.
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The Spanish professional jury, for its part, did not award points to the Israeli interpreter, Yuval Raphael, who presented the song New Day Will Rise. This contrast between the jury and the televote has raised doubts within the public corporation.
RTVE is not the only one questioning the transparency of the process. Other European delegations are also reportedly considering requesting similar audits. The controversy adds to the previous tensions between RTVE and the EBU over Israel's participation in the contest, amid criticism of its military intervention in Gaza.
In April, RTVE joined other countries such as Slovenia, Iceland, and Ireland in requesting a debate on the inclusion of Israel in Eurovision. During the second semi-final, the RTVE commentators mentioned the civilian victims in Gaza, which led to a formal complaint from the Israeli channel KAN and a warning from the EBU with a threat of economic sanctions if these references were repeated in the final.
Israel has been one of the countries most voted for by the public in the last two editions, and authorities from that country have admitted to having promoted voting campaigns among supporters internationally.
RTVE maintains its critical position and will seek to clarify the televoting results through this audit, in a context where the supposedly apolitical nature of the contest is once again questioned.
