In two weeks, on November 24th, citizens in the canton of Basel-Stadt will vote in a referendum to confirm or cancel the canton’s public funding for Eurovision 2025. Although the vote is likely to confirm the funding, democracy can bring surprises. Here is your handy ESCXTRA guide to the vote!
A little bit of context on Basel-Stadt
Basel is a Swiss city, but the referendum will take place over a slightly larger area: the canton of Basel-Stadt. Cantons are the federated states of Switzerland, like lander in Germany or states in the USA. Basel-Stadt can literally be translated as “Basel-City”, and was originally part of a larger canton of Basel. The old canton split in 1833, between Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, literally “Basel-countryside”. Technically, the contest will actually take place in Basel-Landschaft, since the arena (St-Jakobshalle) is located in that canton, but the funding will come from Basel-Stadt.
Basel-Stadt proper is composed of three communes: the city of Basel (more than 170,000 inhabitants), and the much smaller towns of Riehen (about 22,000) and Bettingen (about 1,300). It is the smallest canton in the country, but like all cantons it has its own parliament, called the “Grand Council”, and Government, the “Executive Council”.
In September, the Executive Council asked the Grand Council to allow up to 37m Swiss Francs of public funding, from the canton, to host Eurovision. The council voted on the decision almost unanimously, with 87 votes in favour, 4 against, and 4 abstaining.
If the council voted, why is there a referendum?
Because enough citizens wanted it to happen. Switzerland is famous for its direct democracy, with citizens voting up to four times a year on different topics, with many of these votes being brought by citizens’ initiatives. The systems may vary between the federal level and the cantons, but there is usually two types of such votes :
- initiatives, when citizens want to add something to the law or the constitution
- and referendums, when citizens vote on a law, amendment, decision, etc. which has already passed a vote in parliament
The Basel referendum falls in the second category. Under article 52 of the Basel-Stadt constitution, citizens have 42 days after a canton law or decision’s publication to co-sign a petition to force a referendum. The goal of the people signing the petition is usually to get a “No” vote and to repeal the decision.
In Basel-Stadt, 2,000 signatures are required for this procedure, which represents about 1.8% of the electorate (some 114,000 people). 3,912 signatures were gathered against ESC funding, which is an average number compared to the last few successful petitions (2,230 for a referendum held in March 2023 ; 3,711 for November 2022 ; and 4,728 for one in September 2022).
But why are they against it?
The initiative came from the Federal Democratic Union (EDU), a ultraconservative party defending a platform inspired by the Christian Bible. The committee which collected the signatures gave three official reasons behind their opposition to the public funding for Eurovision:
- Doubts about the economic opportunity for the canton (considering that Basel is on the border, the committee fears that a lot of the economic drive from visitors will actually benefit French and German towns across the border)
- A fear of a degraded reputation for the city (mainly driven by the 2024 experience, when protests against Israel’s participation took place in Malmö, and with the heavy atmosphere around such participation)
- A denunciation of double-standards regarding religion (Eurovision rules forbids the promotion of religious content, and as such the EBU required the Swiss entrant in 2013, Heilsarmee (literally “Salvation Army”) to change its name, with the committee comparing this to Bambie Thug’s performance in Malmö 2024 and considering it as “occult and satanic”)
The canton legislature also brought forth arguments, in favour of the funding, and cited the economic opportunities, the risk of reputation loss for the city if they drop out of the contest (making it less likely to host large events in the future), and the city-wide, “festival of tolerance” party that Eurovision can bring to Basel.
The official arguments on both sides of the campaign can be found in this official video from the canton’s website (in German):
Could the people vote against Eurovision?
Everything is possible, but a quick analysis of the Basel electorate shows a reassuring picture for the contest. Basel-Stadt is the most urban canton of Switzerland, as well as one of the most liberal-leaning.
Two recent examples of referendums should be reassuring:
- last September, citizens all across Switzerland rejected a popular initiative to strengthen the protection of biodiversity – but in Basel-Stadt people voted in favour of the project
- last October, the canton held its legislative elections, to elect the Grand Council for 2025-2029, and kept a socialist-green coalition in power, even giving it an additional seat
The possibility of a referendum was also considered for each bid to host Eurovision in Switzerland, with some bids withdrawn because of a reasonable risk of a referendum halting the process. Basel was seen as a safe option on that regard. And indeed, the decision is supported by all major parties in the cantons, in the governing coalition or in the opposition (including the very conservative “Swiss People’s Party”).
What if the “No” wins anyway?
There is no clear path forward if the “No” wins. The official campaign information talks about the consequences in these terms:
[If the “No” wins], the canton and SRG [the Swiss broadcaster] will analyse the next steps in November and consider the ways and to which extent the contest can still take place in Basel under these conditions. SRG has already publicly stated that, in the worst case, the contest should be reduced considerably. The event would then be reduced to a large TV show on Saturday evening, without side events, and thus with much less added value for the canton of Basel-Stadt. In the event of a no to the ESC, SRG would also have the opportunity to terminate the contract with Basel-Stadt as a stronger measure. Basel-Stadt official campaign on the ESC 2025 referendum
An event “reduced to a large TV show on Saturday” would hardly comply with the basic rules of Eurovision, which require two semi-finals, each with three shows open to the public. The idea of withdrawing the hosting right from Basel could look more likely.
If you are curious about these scenarios, stay tuned for another article from ESCXTRA next week, taking a closer look at this unlikely outcome, and how precedent in Eurovision history and beyond can give us insights on the contingency plans for the contest.
If you can vote in Basel-Stadt, do not hesitate to reach us to explain your experience of the voting and the referendum. Stay tuned for our next article next week, and for the results on the 24th!
