Soraya Arnelas debuted last night on TVE as spokesperson for the Spanish delegation at Eurovision. She was in charge of announcing the jury’s votes in the final of the festival, replacing Ruth Lorenzo, who was spokesperson in the last edition.
The artist’s debut came in the most controversial edition of the festival in memory, with a disciplinary expulsion of the Netherlands delegation and with the presence of Israel making the rest of the participants uncomfortable.
On this matter, the person who was Spain’s representative at Eurovision in 2009 preferred to remain neutral. Unlike her Finnish counterparts, who preferred not to be spokespersons in the final tonight to protest the presence of Israel.
Soraya said that “I don’t want to politicize” and, in an interview with ‘Fórmula TV’ that has gone viral on social networks, she announced that she was giving up carrying the flag of her land Extremadura because “it is the same” as that of Palestine. Although he soon clarified that the one from the Arab country includes “a red stripe.”
Finally, the TVE spokesperson assured that she wanted to “wink” at the people of Extremadura but “I don’t want it to lead to confusion.” So, Spain officially adopted a neutral position in the most controversial Eurovision final remembered for the presence of Israel.
