“On Sunday, November 24, residents of the Swiss city of Basel will decide in a referendum whether taxpayers should finance the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.”, — write: www.epravda.com.ua
On Sunday, November 24, residents of the Swiss city of Basel will decide in a referendum whether taxpayers should finance the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.
This is reported by “European Truth” with reference to AFP.
Normally in Swiss referendums, residents send ballots in advance by post, so polling stations will only be open a few hours before noon.
The results of the will will be published later that day.
Nemo, the representative of Switzerland, won this year’s contest, which gave the country the right to host the Eurovision Song Contest next year.
However, the small, ultra-conservative Christian party, the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland, collected enough signatures to push for a referendum on whether to allocate 34.96 million Swiss francs ($39.5 million) to the show.
Eurovision is a non-commercial event financed mainly by weighted contributions from the broadcasters of the participating countries.
However, Eurovision says that given the benefits, the host cities that host the competition should also contribute.
The head of communications for the 2025 contest, Edi Estermann, said that if voters refuse to allocate money, Eurovision will have to be cut.
“The event, planned for 10 days, will be reduced to a big TV show on Saturday night, and no public events outside the main venue,” he said.
Despite the fact that under the terms of the contract, moving to another city remains possible, preparations are already in full swing in Basel, and the final, which will take place on May 17, is less than half a year away.
“The project team very much hopes that the voters of Basel will recognize this unique opportunity for the city and the country as a whole,” Estermann said.
We will remind you that in September, the Swiss held a referendum inrejected pension and environmental reforms.
And in March in Switzerland at the referendum voted to increase pension payments for the elderly, as well as against raising the statutory retirement age.
European truth