Swiss voters will decide on whether to approve the A$60.8 million budget to host the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday.
Eurovision is set to be held in the Basel-Stadt region in May. The Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland, a right-wing political party, collected signatures to trigger a referendum on the budget.
"This is a totally disproportionate public expenditure, a true waste,” said Philippe Karoubi, a party board member.
Karoubi also said Eurovision had become "a vector of ideological provocations, which are clearly contrary to Western Judeo-Christian values.”
Eurovision is planned to last 10 days, including public events around the city of Basel as well as the main televised contest.
If voters block the budget, Eurovision will be cut down to a single televised event.
“Eurovision will need to be scaled way back,” according to Eurovision 2025 communications lead Edi Estermann.
"And that would of course create far lower value for the city and for all of Switzerland."
Swiss singer Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024. The winning country is typically asked to host the contest the following year.