A referendum will be held in Basel next month against the Grand Council’s approval of expenditure for the holding of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel.
Sunday 24 November will see a referendum take place at the 2025 Eurovsision host city Basel where voters will vote on the Grand Council’s resolution regarding the approval of expenditure for the holding of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel. Basel residents will vote against or in favour of the ESC 2025 funding.
The Federal Democratic Union (EDU) has collected circa 4,000 signatures to trigger a referendum against the Grand Council’s resolution regarding the ESC 2025 funding.
The City of Basel released the following press release on 26 October 2024 regarding this issue:
The referendum against the Grand Council’s decision regarding the approval of expenditure for the holding of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel has been passed. Voters will vote on this and on two other cantonal and four federal proposals on the weekend of November 24, 2024. At the same time, the second round of the general elections to the Government Council will take place.
On the weekend of November 24, 2024, voters will vote on the Grand Council resolution regarding the approval of expenditure for the holding of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel. The referendum submitted today was approved with the required 2,000 valid signatures. A total of 3,912 valid signatures were counted. At the same time, this weekend will see a vote on the cantonal popular initiative “for more musical diversity”, on the partial revision of the cantonal constitution regarding voting and election rights for foreigners, and on four federal proposals. In addition, the second round of the general elections to the government council will take place.
The voting and election documents will be packaged and sent out starting next Monday. Those entitled to vote will have received the documents by the end of the week.
The Basel Grand Council has approved a fund of circa CHF 37.46 million for hosting the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Basel last September. During the vote 87 members voted in favour and 4 members against.
The Government of Basel expects to spend circa CHF 35 million, after discounting CHF 2.5 million revenues earned from ticket sales etc.
The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 13, 15, 17 May at the St.Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.
Source: Kanton Basel Stadt
Photo credit: SSR-SRG/ EBU
