Voters in the Swiss city of Basel have approved nearly €40 million in funding to host their city's annual Eurovision televised spectacle.
They feared that the party would be less beautiful. The voters of the Swiss city of Basel approved on Sunday, November 24 by an overwhelming majority the financing of nearly 40 million euros for the hosting in their city of the annual Eurovision television show, which therefore promises, for its edition 2025, to take place with all its usual pomp.
Provisional voting results show that 66.4% of voters in this northern Swiss city are in favor of using taxpayers' money to the tune of 34.96 million Swiss francs (37.4 million euros) to host the show. Without funding from the host city, the television event, which attracts a huge global audience, would have been significantly truncated.
Switzerland won Eurovision 2024 in Sweden with the victory of non-binary artist Nemo and is due to host the 2025 edition in May in this Rhine city, on the border of France and Germany. The authorities hope for 60 million francs in immediate benefits.
“Waste”
But the Federal Democratic Union (UDF), a small party defending “timeless Christian values”, had launched a referendum to denounce a “real waste” of public money. The party, described as ultra-conservative by the Swiss press, had also put forward security and moral arguments.
“Tattoo”, Loreen’s song to win Eurovision
In the event of rejection of the city's contribution, the event planned for ten days would have been reduced “to a major television show on Saturday evening”, without the organization of public events outside the main stage, warned the head of communications for Eurovision 2025, Edi Estermann, to AFP.
“We are a city of art, fine arts, but also music. It is always very important for our city,” argued Andrea Strahm, lawyer and member of the Basel parliament, interviewed by AFP.
Infrastructures
Voters across Switzerland must also decide whether to approve the expansion of the country's highways as well as powers granted to property owners, with early results showing the vote is expected to be close.
The government and Parliament intend to eliminate bottlenecks on six motorway sections, with traffic having more than doubled on national roads since 1990.
An alliance of around 50 organizations, supported by left-wing and environmental parties, launched a referendum against these projects, deemed too expensive and generating even more traffic, according to them. The government has promised measures to compensate for attacks on nature, such as the reforestation of forests or the creation of ponds for amphibians.
The costs of the projects – widening of sections of motorways, the construction of the “Rhine tunnel” in Basel and new tunnel tubes in Schaffhausen and St. Gallen – are estimated at 4.9 billion Swiss francs (5.26 billion euros).
“It’s all these billions that we will not be able to invest in other solutions, other means of transport which are more ecological and also more efficient,” Angela Zimmermann, campaign manager for the active-traffic association.
Regulate rentals
The Swiss – almost 60% of whom are tenants – are also voting on two separate proposals aimed at giving landlords more flexibility to terminate a lease and limit subletting. The new rules decreed by Parliament aim to prevent abuses in subletting, common in Switzerland. The outcome of the vote seems uncertain, as the polls are divided.
On the other hand, they show a rejection of the regulations authorizing landlords to terminate tenants' leases for personal purposes even if this need is not urgent. A major tenants' association (Asloca) has launched a double referendum against these “direct attacks on the meager tenant protection mechanisms in tenancy law”.
Asloca “firmly opposes this attack by the real estate lobby aimed at chasing away tenants to rent more expensively. By facilitating lease terminations, rents will explode, since with each change of tenants, the lessor can increase the rent “, she argued.
