After more than two weeks of mail voting, the results of the Basel-stadt cantonal referendum to validate the funding for Eurovision 2025 are out. At noon today, provisional results put the “Yes” in front, with 66.40% of the votes in favour of public funding for the contest.
After a successful petition by the ultraconservative Federal Democratic Union (EDU) party, the Basel-Stadt canton’s Grand Council decision to finance Eurovision with up to 37m CHF of public funds had to be put to a vote through a referendum.
The referendum took place over the last two weeks, as part of the Swiss democratic cycle, along other referendums in Basel-Stadt and Switzerland as a whole, and along elections to various offices. Most people vote by mail in Switzerland, with turnout regularly rising from 0 to 50% and sometimes even more as the days grow closer to the “official” election date, in this case today, November 24th.
The result
This section has been updated after the release of the detailed final results.
At noon, official estimates gave 66.40% to the “Yes”, confirming the decision to fund Eurovision in Basel next May. These were only the “postal and electronic vote”, but these represented almost 96% of voter turnout for this referendum, meaning the result was already clear when we published this article.
The final results showed that 38,186 people voted “Yes” (meaning 66.57% of the votes), and 19,172 “No”, for a total of 57,358 votes, and a turnout of 57.15% of eligible voters. The “Yes” won in all three communes of the canton, with the highest support in Basel proper (67.5%, against 61.5% in Riehen and 57.7% in Bettingen).
What it means for Eurovision ?
The public funding may now go ahead, meaning Basel will definitively host Eurovision next year, as well as all the side-events planned around it (Arena+, Eurovillage, etc.). These were the first things that would have been axed in the alternative scenario of the “No” winning.
With the St-Jakobshalle being confirmed as the host venue, we may also soon have news about ticket sales for the nine live shows of Eurovision week. Traditionally, tickets have gone on sale first at the end of the month of November in the last 10 years, with a few exceptionally later dates in 2019, 2022 and 2023, in the first months of the Eurovision year.
Are you relieved? Do you plan to go to Basel? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media at @escxtra!
