Residents of the Swiss city of Basel are participating in a referendum today, which will decide the issue of allocating $39.5 million for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. This issue became relevant after the victory of the Swiss singer Nemo at Eurovision 2024, which allowed Switzerland to become the host of the next contest.
Swiss singer Nemo won Eurovision 2024 with the song "The Code", giving Switzerland the right to host the song contest next year. Basel, located on the northern border with France and Germany, was chosen to host the competition.
But the Swiss Federal Democratic Union party collected enough signatures to push for a referendum on whether to spend the 34.96 million Swiss francs ($39.5 million) approved by the regional government for the show.
The results of the referendum will be known later on Sunday, the agency notes.
