Municipal vote AG Voters of Brugg AG and Villnachern AG say yes to municipal merger

The town of Brugg is once again merging with a neighboring municipality, thereby expanding its area by around 70 percent. The voters of Brugg and Villnachern clearly approved the merger agreement between the two municipalities at the ballot box.

In Brugg, voters approved the merger with a 58.5 percent share of votes in favor (yes votes: 2,108, no votes: 1,494). The turnout was 48.1 percent, as reported by the town chancellery on Sunday.

In the village of Villnachern, the agreement was approved by 56.6 percent (yes votes: 467, no votes: 358). The voter turnout was 72.3 percent.

Prior to the referendum, the Brugg residents' council and the Villnachern municipal assembly had already clearly voted in favor of the merger on January 1, 2026.

The new municipality will have a population of around 15,000. The approval of the Aargau Grand Council is considered a formality. The canton is contributing CHF 4.2 million to the project.

Lots of merger experience

Both partners had already been involved in municipal mergers prior to this decision. Villnachern examined a merger with several neighboring villages around 15 years ago, but this failed.

The town of Brugg is, so to speak, the Aargau merger champion: it includes the formerly independent municipalities of Altenburg (since 1904), Lauffohr (1970), Umiken (2010) and Schinznach-Bad (2020). However, the voters of Brugg rejected a merger with its largest neighbor Windisch in 2006.