Residents of the Swiss city of Basel are voting on Sunday, November 24, in a referendum to decide whether taxpayers should finance the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.
In Switzerland, most people send their ballots by mail ahead of time, so polling stations will be open only for a few hours in the morning. The results will be announced later the same day.
Switzerland’s victory in this year’s Eurovision, with the country’s representative Nemo taking first place, granted Switzerland the right to host the event in 2025. However, the small conservative Christian party “Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland” gathered enough signatures to call for a referendum on whether to allocate 34.96 million Swiss francs (39.5 million USD) for the event.
Eurovision is a non-commercial event funded mainly through contributions from the broadcasters of participating countries. However, the event organizers argue that, given the benefits, host cities should also contribute financially.
Edi Estermann, the communications head for the 2025 contest, warned that if the voters reject the funding, Eurovision would have to be scaled down. “The 10-day event would be reduced to a large TV show on Saturday night, with no public events outside the main venue,” he explained.
Although the contract allows for the possibility of relocating the event to another city, preparations in Basel are already underway, and with less than six months until the grand final on May 17, the project team remains hopeful. “The project team hopes that Basel’s voters will recognize this unique opportunity for the city and the country as a whole,” Estermann said.
