Dutch Minister of Education, Culture & Science, Rianne Letschert says she sees no reason to ask the Media Commissioner to investigate the Netherlands’ broadcasters AVROTROS and the NPO group around the decision to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest.
A programming choice for the broadcaster themselves
Writing in response to a parliamentary question from Dutch MPs René Claassen and Mona Keijzer, Minister Letschert stated that the decision to participate or not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest lies with the broadcasters involved, based on the editorial autonomy of the organisations. The question from the members came after an article alleged an “Hilversum boycott” of this year’s contest.
Letschert made it clear that currently, there are no grounds for the Dutch government to investigate the broadcasters’ decision regarding participation and broadcast of the Contest. She clarified that Dutch media legislation does not mandate broadcasters such as AVROTROS must maintain strict political neutrality on decisions of broadcasting schedule. She reiterated the editorial independence of the broadcasters in her written response.
The Office of the Media Commissioner remains an independent supervisor in the Netherlands, and the decision to investigate lies with the Commissioner’s Office themselves.
This comes after AVROTROS was the first country to confirm they would withdraw from the contest for the 2026 edition in Vienna, following the December EBU General Assembly vote. The Contest was still broadcast in the Netherlands, with the show being aired on NPO1 but broadcast by NOS Evenementen and NTR, not AVROTROS as was the case in prior years. This was not the first time that NOS were involved in Eurovision, as they were the Dutch participating broadcaster between 1970 and 2009.
The Netherlands’ Eurovision journey
The Netherlands are one of the founding countries of the ESC, having performed the very first song ever on the Eurovision stage back in 1956. While the result of “De Vogels van Holland” is unknown, the Netherlands have garnered 5 wins, with their most recent in 2019. However the Netherlands are also known to have had the longest ever non qualification streak in the semi-final era – they missed out on the final a whopping 8 times between 2005 and 2012.
Claude represented the Netherlands in 2025 with the song “C’est La Vie”. Competing in the first semi-final, he eventually qualified for the final in Basel, Switzerland. In the final, the Netherlands finished in 12th place with 175 points. 133 of these points came from the juries, while the remaining 42 came from the televote.
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News Source: Spreekbuis.NL / Tweede Kamer NL
Image Credit: AVROTROS
Rory Gannon