Minusio and Tenero-Contra ready to study a merger

The municipalities of Minusio and Tenero-Contra have announced their intention to study a merger between the two communities. The announcement came during a meeting between the canton's local authorities section and the municipalities of the urban Locarno region.

The meeting followed two days of discussion held in March, which brought together 170 representatives from local authorities, civil society and business across the region's seven municipalities. Two options had emerged: a comprehensive merger joining Locarno, Losone, Orselina, Minusio, Tenero-Contra and Brione sopra Minusio, or a more limited project. Minusio and Tenero-Contra chose the latter, effectively setting aside the idea of a single, large-scale merger.

Should the project go ahead, it would be the first urban merger in the Locarno region and would create a municipality of 11,000 residents.

Minusio's mayor, Roberto Mondada, says the political groups represented on the municipal council were united in wanting to pursue only the scenario with Tenero-Contra. According to Mondada, this option offers stronger guarantees that services will be distributed evenly between the two areas, avoiding an administrative centralization that part of the population still sees as problematic.

Tenero-Contra's mayor, Graziano Crugnola, notes that the two municipalities already cooperate closely on numerous joint projects. For Crugnola, the proposal is not directed against any other municipality, but rather a step toward a stronger hub that complements Locarno, with an eye toward a possible broader merger in the future.

Outlook for the Locarno region

The canton hopes Mergoscia will also join the project; that municipality has had no municipal council since 2024 due to a lack of candidates. The process, however, is only just beginning: further study will follow, then a consultative vote, over a timeframe of a few years.

Norman Gobbi, head of the cantonal Department of Territory, said he was surprised and pleased, noting that the urban area of the Locarno region had until now been one of the most reluctant to pursue merger policy. Gobbi credits the shift to preparatory work carried out with all the region's municipalities, and stresses that the main driver behind merger projects today comes from the ground up.

With the merger, the new municipality would approach Locarno in population, which has 16,000 residents, and would become the fifth-largest municipality in Ticino, overtaking Chiasso, which has about 7,800 residents. Gobbi hopes that overtaking Chiasso could also encourage the lower Mendrisiotto area to work on mergers of its own.

In Locarno, mayor Nicola Pini says the city had been ready to consider a broader scenario, as suggested by both the canton's data and an earlier participatory workshop. Pini wished Minusio and Tenero-Contra well and said Locarno would continue talks with Losone, with which bilateral discussions had already begun, with Orselina and, if interested, with Brione sopra Minusio, to explore a possible lighter-touch merger. Pini nonetheless considers the Minusio-Tenero-Contra project a step toward a stronger Locarno region.