Voters in the Swiss city of Basel approved government funding for Eurovision

Basel residents voted on Sunday to approve government funding for the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in the Swiss city.

Preliminary results show that a clear majority of citizens gave the green light for a €40 million loan to comprehensively finance the 69th event in May.

The funding will be used to fund related program costs, as well as accommodation, welcome campaigns and expansion of local public transport.

Among postal voters, who typically make up about 90% of votes cast, 66.4% voted for the credit. The final result of the referendum is expected only late Sunday evening.

Citizens also voiced their opinions on other local and national issues in votes across the country, ranging from highway expansion to health care funding proposals and housing and rental legislation.

Voters in Zurich headed to the polls to decide whether the city should allow the use of a so-called gender asterisk in official publications.

The asterisk was introduced into German, in which nouns are typically gendered, to make more nouns gender-inclusive.

The practice is often criticized by social conservatives, and several political parties collected signatures in Zurich to push for a referendum to ban the practice.

Eurovision debate

The issue of Eurovision funding was initiated by the right-wing party Federal Democratic Union (EDU), which helped coordinate the collection of signatures.

EDU politicians criticized the competition as a “propaganda platform” for gay and non-binary people, whom they accused of promoting Satanism and the occult.

The party also argued that the tense political atmosphere posed a security threat.

The event will take place in Basel after the country won the 2024 Malmö competition with Nemo’s The Code.