“It is undeniable that international conflicts are increasingly affecting the Contest, undermining its neutral character. The Eurovision Song Contest has therefore become a platform for division,” said Taco Zimmerman, Director-General of AVROTROS in a statement from the broadcaster.
The contest has recently been hit by a wave of boycotts over Israel’s participation.
Earlier this month, organisers announced they were excluding any country involved in an armed conflict from hosting the competition.
The 2026 competition was watched by 131 million viewers, down 35 million on the year before after five countries boycotted it over Israel’s participation.
The Netherlands, Iceland, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia all pulled out of the contest – with the latter three refusing to broadcast the show at all.
Notice ,hosting" … this doesn’t exclude participating.
Ah, so it’s not about any moral objection, it’s just to make sure the venue doesn’t get bombed during the event.
It’s not unprecedented. When Ukraine won a couple of years ago, the UK hosted on behalf of them because of the war there.