Cantonal Family Affair

27 December 2020

Switzerland has more than 2,200 municipalities, ranging from very small (with fewer than 20 inhabitants) to large (with over 400,000 inhabitants).

A city with more than 600,000 to 1 million inhabitants is lacking, unlike, for example, in the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, or Hungary.

In the French-speaking part of Switzerland, la Romandie, the most significant cities are Lausanne and Geneva, followed until recently by La Chaux-de-Fonds (Canton of Neuchâtel).

However, Neuchâtel will become the canton’s largest city on 1 January 2021. The canton’s capital merged with the municipalities of Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Valangin, and Peseux, resulting in a new municipality with 45,000 inhabitants.

However, La Chaux-de-Fonds remains the capital of the watchmaking industry (cité horlogère) and has long financed the canton’s administration (so they say).

Even the canton of Neuchâtel has a historically grown rivalry between towns and regions, the mountain region of the Jura (Montagnes or le Haut du canton) versus the shores of the lake (Littoral or le Bas du canton).

For centuries, Neuchâtel was the seat and (lucrative) job machine of the Counts of Neuchâtel and their German, French and Prussian successors (1395-1857).

However, the city of Neuchâtel has also developed its industry, with a large sector comprising small and medium-sized enterprises.  Today, it has become the seat of several multinational companies.

The citizens of La Chaux-de-Fonds resisted in 1830-31 (in vain) and 1848 (successfully) the claims of the Prussian king, so to speak, the industrial revolution against the ancien régime in Neuchâtel.

La Chaux-de-Fonds remains the canton’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, just as Neuchâtel is the university town. Both cities have a rich cultural life and entrepreneurial spirit. They’ll also be positioned and fully embedded in the Confederacy.

The rivalry is not a ‘Graben’ but a family affair.