The city of Basel, in Switzerland, is organizing a referendum this Sunday on the Eurovision 2025 contest. A vote obtained at the initiative of the Federal Democratic Union (UDF), which denounces a “waste” of public money for a “blasphemous” event.
The decision of the polls. Residents of the city of Basel, Switzerland, are being called to participate in a referendum this Sunday to decide whether or not to organize the Eurovision 2025 contest next May. An event which Switzerland inherited for the third time in its history, last May, after the victory of the non-binary artist Nemo in Malmö, Sweden.
This was without counting on the determination of the Federal Democratic Union (UDF), a small party defending “timeless Christian values”, to oppose the financing of the famous song contest which would, according to them, represent a “waste” of public money – the financial contribution is set at 37.4 million euros – for musical performances deemed “blasphemous”. Also, the UDF succeeded in obtaining the number of signatures necessary for the organization of a referendum likely to call into question the organization of Eurovision in Basel.
“The first argument is financial. We considered that this is a public expenditure which is totally disproportionate, a real waste for the canton: three days of shows for almost 35 million francs (Swiss, editor’s note), knowing that a large part of this amount will be spent on security,” explains Philippe Karoubi, member of the UDF steering committee in Switzerland, to AFP.
“The fact that it is the State which organizes it provokes our reaction,” he underlines, affirming that “even if financial benefits exist in Switzerland, they will be private”, particularly for the hotel industry. For the UDF, it is out of the question to allocate public funds to a competition that has become a “vector of provocations or ideologies, which are clearly contrary to Western Judeo-Christian values and those of Switzerland in particular,” insists Philippe Karoubi.
Blasphemous performances
“There have been performances that are blasphemous against Christian thought or even occult,” he believes. For him, the performance of Bambie Thug for Ireland during the last edition was “almost a form of black mass in public”. Eurovision would thus have “become an international platform totally exploited for the promotion of ideologies, for example woke or transgender ideologies”.
Another argument of the UDF, the ongoing conflicts around the world, such as the Russian invasion in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, are increasingly inviting themselves to Eurovision, as evidenced by the tensions around the Israeli candidate Eden Golan in Malmö.
The party indicates on its website that it stands “unconditionally alongside the State of Israel considering that it is the fulfillment of biblical prophecies”, and underlines that “these anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic demonstrations” are the mark of a “ hostility which was totally unacceptable and incompatible with the spirit of the competition which is ‘United by music'”, Philippe Karoubi.
A resized event?
The head of communications for Eurovision 2025, Edi Estermann, believes that if the inhabitants of Basel were to vote against the financial contribution, “Eurovision would have to be significantly resized”. “The event planned over ten days would then be reduced to a major television show on Saturday evening”, without the organization of public events outside the main stage, “and therefore, of course, with much greater value creation low for the city and for all of Switzerland,” he assures AFP.
The Swiss city, which was preferred to others to host the 69th edition of the competition, hopes for immediate benefits of around 60 million Swiss francs (more than 64 million euros), based on the experience of Liverpool, host city of 2023, particularly for the entire tourism and accommodation sector.
