San Marino Challenges Eurovision Voting: «It’s Not That We’re Small, It’s That the System Is Rigged»
It’s not every day that the microstate of San Marino decides to take on the mighty European Broadcasting Union (EBU). But when it does, it’s with the precision of a Swiss watch (manufactured just across the border) and the indignation of a country whose Eurovision dreams have once again been lost in the post.
This week, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Federico Pedini Amati, and the Director General of San Marino RTV, Carlo Romeo, publicly criticised the current Eurovision voting system, suggesting that it simply isn’t working — especially not for small nations who, as they say, play by the rules but get elbowed out in the final count.
Their complaint isn’t new, but the timing is pointed. Fresh off the heels of another disappointing result at Eurovision 2025, San Marino has decided enough is enough. In a joint statement, they criticised the “excessive weight” given to large voting blocs and demanded greater transparency around the so-called «Rest of the World» televote — that new and enigmatic category that allows global viewers to weigh in, but seemingly always ends up tipping the scales in favour of the usual suspects.
San Marino isn’t merely throwing a Mediterranean tantrum. They’re requesting something quite reasonable: the publication of detailed televoting data from 2023, 2024, and 2025; a clear explanation of how those elusive “Rest of the World” votes are counted; and — here’s the showstopper — a full forensic audit of the last two years of televoting.
In short, they want receipts.
What irks San Marino most is not the lack of points (they’re used to that), but the lack of visibility and fairness in a system where, as they put it, a few countries seem to be running the show. And while they fully understand that the Eurovision Song Contest is a television spectacle first and foremost, they argue that the voting system should at least pretend to reflect public preference — rather than “statistical anomalies that raise more questions than they answer”.
To be clear, this isn’t San Marino’s first rodeo. The broadcaster has long campaigned for reforms, particularly around how the televote is collected and converted into points. The EBU, for its part, has thus far dodged these concerns like a badly choreographed interpretive dance, citing confidentiality and commercial sensitivity.
But Pedini Amati and Romeo are not buying it. They argue that when viewers are charged for their votes — in good faith and with patriotic enthusiasm — they deserve to know that their input is being taken seriously. “Transparency,” they say, “is not optional. It’s the foundation of trust.”
As for the EBU’s silence, San Marino is giving them until the next Reference Group meeting to respond with some solid answers — and preferably, fewer rehearsed statements about “procedural validity”.
Until then, we can only admire San Marino’s gallant stand: a small nation demanding a fair shake in a glittering European spectacle where sequins matter more than statistics, and where — sometimes — the underdog just wants to see the scoreboard.
Source: San Marino Tv
