2023-05-15 18:51:53
A mountain village absorbed by a city: this scenario, which was unimaginable until recently in Valais, might become reality. On June 18, Veysonnaz and Sion vote on their merger, and the result looks tight.
The campaign is more tense than usual. According to information from the RTS, the opponents are preparing an appeal once morest the voting brochure of the City of Sion.
The City of Sion has also brought the executive of the neighboring town of Nendaz to order. In a letter with a dry tone, she enjoins the elected representatives of Nendard to no longer say that they too would like to merge with their neighbor at altitude Veysonnaz.
“It was Veysonnaz who made this request to us”
For the president of Sion Philippe Varone, interviewed at the end of a public debate, all these tensions are finally normal. “Mergers are often linked to emotion. We heard it this evening, we talk regarding origin, local identity, the neighbor who is not necessarily of the same opinion… It’s normal that ‘there is debate, that there is a little tension,’ he relativized Monday at the microphone of La Matinale de la RTS.
“I remind you that it was Veysonnaz who made this request to us”, specifies in passing Philippe Varone. “Today, we think we are stronger together, that we can really develop this central Valais”, adds the president of Sion. The capital of Valais dreams of being the capital of the Alps to take advantage of the economic benefits and to be better heard on the political scene.
A dreaded loss of identity
But this idea of a greater Sion does not appeal to opponent Loïc Le Deunff. “Quite typical municipalities can also be beneficial. It can create bridges, rather than having a municipality that ‘knows everything'”, he pleads. “There is also the question of globalization, a desire not to have too big ensembles in order to keep a kind of proximity […] and not to be diluted”.
The argument of preserving the identity of small towns does not convince Patrick Lathion, the president of Veysonnaz. “The identity of the people of Veysonnaz is not so different from that of Sion, since we vote in the same way, even in a slightly more progressive way. There are no major differences between the inhabitants of the mountain and the plain. I think it’s a vision of the past,” he says.
Two municipalities have already taken the plunge
On the same hillside on the left bank of the Rhône, two municipalities have already merged with Sion in recent years: Salins in 2013 – another gateway to the 4 Valleys ski area, since it is home to the Piste de l’Ours and its gondola – and Les Agettes in 2017. On the other hand, the municipality of Vex, which includes the resorts of Thyon 2000 and Les Collons, ruled out the idea of a merger in 2022.
>> Read regarding it: A small town turns its back on Sion, which dreams of being the “capital of the Alps”
In 2025, it will be the turn of the municipality of Mont Noble (itself the result of the merger of the municipalities of Nax, Vernamiège and Mase in 2011) to decide whether it wants to unite its destiny with the Valais capital.
Radio subject: Romain Carrupt
Article web: Vincent Cherpillod
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