Bern City Council Approves Merger with Ostermundigen

The Bern city council is behind the merger with Ostermundigen. He approved the bill on Thursday by 45 votes to 7 with 9 abstentions.

SP, Green Alliance, AL/PdA, GFL/EPP and Green Liberals voted for the merger. The middle faction abstained, the FDP/JF faction was split. The SVP voted no by a large majority.

The decision of the Ostermundigen Parliament will follow on June 29th. The voters of both municipalities have the last word on the federal election Sunday of October 22nd.

If both communities say yes, the merger will take place at the beginning of 2025. If you say no, the merger has already failed.

The municipal councils of Bern and Ostermundigen had passed the revised merger package to the parliaments at the beginning of April. The Bern city government recommends the bill for acceptance, the municipal council of Ostermundigen makes no recommendation.

investment in the future

SP/JUSO spokesman Diego Bigger described the merger as an “investment in the future of the capital region”. More people could design a larger space in the future.

Today there is an artificial municipal boundary in a common living space, said Mirjam Roder on behalf of the GFL/EPP group. The merger is “an opportunity that may not come again”. For example, the ambitious climate strategy of the city of Bern could be extended to the new district.

Thanks to the merger, urban interests in the canton would gain in importance, said Irina Straubhaar. The GLP/JGLP parliamentary group agrees, although the synergy potential is not being fully exploited.

marriage of convenience

Yes also said the GB/JA group. However, the enthusiasm of her spokeswoman Katharina Gallizzi was limited. There was no broadly supported participatory process, and the result of the merger negotiations was not particularly impressive. A “we feeling” will not set in so quickly.

David Böhner campaigned for a reasonable yes for the AL/PdA faction: “The advantages of the merger outweigh the disadvantages.” The people of Ostermund could benefit from better services and the municipal employees from better working conditions.

Pandora’s box

The middle group abstained. One enters into a marriage but skipped the engagement, said Claudio Righetti. The merger opens a Pandora’s box: the medium and long-term costs are uncertain.

Both yes and no votes came from the FDP/JF parliamentary group. According to Florence Schmid, some faction members hope that Bern will take an example from Ostermundigen’s lean administration. Others worried that the city was simply swallowing up the neighbors to get bigger and unwilling to learn anything.

Incorporation instead of merger

Frontal opposition came from the ranks of the SVP faction. Their spokesman Alexander Feuz warned the neighboring community against submitting to the “red-green yoke” of the city of Bern. The city is not a radiant bride, it is imperious and spends the money lavishly. Anyway, it’s not a merger, but an incorporation.

The merger of the two communities in the cemetery has long been a fact, as Barbara Nyffeler (SP) recalled. Ostermundigen gave up its own cemetery decades ago.

Since then, Ostermundiger and Berner have been lying together in the Schosshalden cemetery, “Grave to grave, urn to urn. There are no cemeteries in Ostermundiger and no cemeteries in Bern.”

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