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After a citizen's initiative reached its minimum threshold of signatures in Bettendorf, the municipality announced that a referendum may soon be held to decide whether it should continue its merger discussions with Nordstad.
On Wednesday, the citizen's initiative announced that it had surpassed the required threshold of signatures from 20 percent of registered voters. The list will be submitted to the municipality on Friday for verification. If validated, the municipality will be legally obligated to organise a referendum within three months.
The logistical challenges around such a tight deadline, however, caused much discussion at Wednesday's municipal council meeting.
"Three months from now will mark 28 February. And as Mayor Patrick Mergen had already mentioned to the press, the two Sundays before that - 16 and 23 February - both fall during the school holidays. Now, I don't believe such an inconvenience to voters brings particular luck. We're therefore considering 9 February, although our municipal secretary remains suspicious about the feasibility," says Deputy Mayor Andy Deemden.
The council also considered seeking permission from the Ministry of Interior to delay the referendum.
Also on the agenda were the budgetary considerations, although discussions on whether the council would adhere to the results of the referendum (which is consultative and therefore non-binding) was omitted.
After all, 7 out of 11 members of the municipal council had voted against the continuation of merger talks on 23 October 2024. At the same time, it remains unclear whether the other municipalities Diekirch, Ettelbruck, Erpeldange-Sûre, and Scheuren, are even interested in welcoming Bettendorf in the merger talks.
