Swiss Review 5/2021

Swiss Review / October 2021 / No.5 18 Report (“redoubt strategy” in English) that the Swiss armywouldhave used in the Second World War in the event of an attack: retreat from the borders and regroup in the mountains. Psychological divide between urban and rural This geographical quirk is a nice gim- mick for Uetendorf and its 6,800 in- habitants. But look closer and youwill see a village that epitomises Switzer- land’s Central Plateau region. Survey the tidy rows of houses in this tax- friendlymunicipality fromone of the hillocks and you will recognise many of the fault lines of modern Switzer- land: scarce agricultural land on the one hand, burgeoning residential zone on the other; quiet farming vil- lage rubbing shoulders with busy in- dustrial estate; rural conservatism and urban vibrancy staring each other out. Uetendorf, far away fromSwitzer- land’s borders, is at the intersection of has been a member of Berne’s can- tonal parliament since 2010, but he also served as Uetendorf’s mayor for 12 years. Zaugg now represents the Green Liberal Party. When he was elected as mayor of Uetendorf in 2001, he belonged to the Swiss Social Dem- ocratic Party (SP). Some in the other- wise conservative-leaning village “feared the worst”, says Zaugg, who was only 30 at the time. But when the new man engaged with constituents and eventually proved his worth, vil- lagers began to feel quite proud of having such a young mayor. Railway for the landowners Uetendorf might seem a sedate place, where foreigners account for seven per cent of the population (well un- der the national average of 25 per cent), but it has felt the winds of change on other key occasions. Take the River Kander, which originally flowed past Uetendorf into the River the urban-rural divide – the psycho- logical gulf that has become a domi- nant factor in the country’s political conversation. Local politician Hannes Zaugg- Graf treads this sensitive terrain. He Uetendorf is very neatly arranged: res- idential zone, indus- trial area, farmland, Alps in the distance. And he – Hannes Zaugg (left) – has kept Uetendorf in the news. Photos: z.arts.ch