Swiss ultra-conservative party hands in signatures against Eurovision 2025
Basel has been chosen to host the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest at the St Jakobshalle Arena.
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss ultra-conservative party hands in signatures against Eurovision 2025
The Swiss Federal Democratic Union (EDU) has handed in signatures for a referendum to try to prevent the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) from taking place in Basel from May 13 to 17, 2025.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Français
fr
Un référendum de l’UDF impose un vote sur le crédit ESC à Bâle
Original
The EDU wants a vote on November 24 on the CHF37.5 million ($43.3 million) loan recently granted by Basel cantonal parliament to organise the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).
On Saturday, the party submitted 4,203 signatures for the referendum; at least 2,000 certified signatures had to be collected and submitted by October 26. The signatures must now be validated by the Basel State Chancellery.
On September 11, Basel cantonal parliament approved the loan for Eurovision 2025 proposed by the government by 87 votes to 4, with 4 abstentions.
The EDU is the only political group to contest the loan. It only has a small presence in canton Basel City and had to rely on support from outside the canton to collect signatures.
The small Christian party had already announced earlier that it would launch a referendum against public spending on the “propaganda event”.
Translated from French by DeepL/sb
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss Abroad
The Swiss Alps, a new Eldorado for real estate developers
Romeo Lacher steps down at Julius Bär and Swiss National Bank
This content was published on
Romeo Lacher will not stand for re-election as Julius Bär chair and will also step down from his role at the Swiss central bank this year.
Alpiq CEO sees security of supply at risk without EU treaty
This content was published on
The security of Switzerland’s future electricity supply is at risk unless a deal with the European Union can be concluded, warns a Swiss energy company boss.
This content was published on
Despite selling more than ten million purely battery-powered vehicles worldwide last year, growth in the e-car market is slowing.
Switzerland marks liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp
This content was published on
Switzerland's President travels to Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
Legal changes coming into force in Switzerland on February 1
This content was published on
Preventive regulation of the wolf population, rules for the import of dog puppies and higher minimum wages in the hospitality industry. On February 1, changes to laws and ordinances as well as other innovations come into force in Switzerland. Here is an overview:
International hot air balloon festival claims the skies of canton Vaud
This content was published on
After a windy first day, the International Balloon Festival in Château-d'Oex (VD) took off on Sunday. Dozens of hot-air balloons took to the skies over the Vaud Alps.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.