City of Opfikon: Over 300 signatures against official gazette
Voters in Opfikon, near Zurich, are expected to vote on the future of their local newspaper, the *Stadt-Anzeiger*: The local Social Democratic Party (SP) has collected over 300 signatures to prevent the *Stadt-Anzeiger* from remaining the official gazette for another four years.
A member of the SP board told SDA that significantly more than the required 300 signatures had been collected. They are therefore confident that the referendum will go ahead once the signatures have been certified.
The opposition was triggered by the sale of the paper to SVP Vice President and car importer Walter Frey, who already publishes five neighborhood papers in the Zurich region under the umbrella of his company Lokalinfo. The SP now fears that the Stadt-Anzeiger will develop into an "SVP-Anzeiger" under the new owner. It would be naïve to believe that Walter Frey is only buying newspapers throughout the canton of Zurich for purely financial reasons, the SP writes in a press release according to SDA.
Should the referendum come to a vote and even be accepted, there are two possible solutions for the SP: either the city looks for a new provider for the official publications. Or the newspaper would have to be sold on to a politically independent owner.
The Opfikon municipal council does not share the concerns of the SP: in December, it gave its approval for the Stadt-Anzeiger to remain the official gazette of the town of Opfikon for a further four years.
The paper has a circulation of 1,800 copies and is published once a week. Once a month, the newspaper is distributed to all households as a large print run. Former publisher Theophil Maag retired for reasons of age.
