Fusion vote Baden-Turgi – Fusion trauma overcome: Baden becomes the largest city in Aargau – News

Both in Baden and in Turgi, the electorate clearly said yes to the merger of the two communities. From 2024, Baden will be the largest city in the canton, ahead of Aarau. With the clear yes from Baden, the trauma after the failed Neuenhof merger should now have been overcome.

In the end, the result was almost surprisingly clear. In the city of Baden, almost 60 percent of the voters put a yes to the merger with the neighboring municipality of Turgi in the ballot box, with a relatively high turnout of 43.1 percent.

As expected, approval was even clearer in Turgi. In the village with around 3,000 inhabitants, the proportion of Yes votes climbed to over 80 percent, with a turnout of 50.5 percent.

After this voting Sunday, one thing is clear: in Aargau, the largest city in terms of population will be called Baden in the future. After completing the merger with Turgi on January 1, 2024, Baden has around 22,600 inhabitants, overtaking the two previous leaders Aarau and Wettingen. Even if in the run-up to the vote all parties except the Baden SVP had backed the merger and there seemed to be a stable majority in favor of the merger, so

Relief after overcoming the fusion trauma

In a first reaction, the Mayor of Baden Markus Schneider (middle) spoke of a “huge joy in this wonderful moment”, but he was also relieved about the clarity of the result.

Twelve years ago, the merger between Baden and the neighboring municipality of Neuenhof surprisingly failed in a wafer-thin decision. It caused a kind of fusion trauma in the city. “I didn’t have any nightmares, but I can’t hide the fact that there was always something in the background,” says the noticeably relieved Schneider at a fusion aperitif on Sunday afternoon in Turgi.

This is a wonderful and historic moment for the whole community.

His colleague Adrian Schoop, Turgi’s mayor, who initiated the merger, recalled that Turgi had detached itself from Lassenstorf exactly 140 years ago and is now merging with Baden: “It’s a wonderful, emotional and also historical event for the whole community Moment.” Both communities are now looking forward to the new development opportunities.

For Baden, these are mainly new building land reserves, which Turgi, in contrast to Baden, still has to a large extent, from which private individuals, business and trade could certainly benefit.