“What do we call it?”: The story of two small Spanish towns trying to unite, but sharing a “no way” name

In Extremadura the saying goes: “For a beautiful wedding, she from Villanueva and he from Don Benito”two towns in the province of Badajoz, separated by six kilometers, which are trying to unite to improve the lives of their people, even if they still have an obstacle to overcome, for now, irreconcilable: “What name do we give to the new city?”

In Spain, almost half of the 8,131 municipalities it has less than 500 inhabitants and the merger of Don Benito, of 37,000, with Villanueva de la Serena, of 26,000, provides a thread of hope in the map of Spanish depopulation.

And yet it would be necessary to finish filing old rivalries like having two football teams -who looked at each other with malice-, two arenas and in the gossip there was a suspicion according to which it was not good to go for a coffee in the neighboring town, joining would transform them into the third most populous city in Extremadura, after Badajoz and Cáceres.

Their merger would increase GDP, there would be a possible 2.75 percent increase in household income – Extremadura has one of the lowest in all of Spain – and there would be a 5 percent more employmentthat would remove the unemployment rate, which today is around 19 percent in San Benito and 17 percent in Villanueva.

It would be a country that, with 713 square kilometers and 63,000 inhabitants, would be able to ask for more help and grants state and European.

Don Benito and Villanueva also add up 16,000 hectares of irrigated land and, by combining the agribusiness they develop on their own, they could place the new city in the first agro-zootechnical place region of.

According to projections of the University of Extremadura, the merger could become the second economic pole of the province of Badajoz.

The two cities already share fire brigade, the national police and the water treatment plant. But growing and becoming a more populated city would also allow for more pressure to be put on the AVE – the fast high-speed train – or the N-430 national line. getting there.

The will of the neighbors

With this clean and stupid prediction, the mayors José Luis Quintana, of Don Benito, and Miguel Angel Gallardo, of Villanueva, held a referendum in February know the will of the neighbors.

Both socialists first passed through the Palacio de la Moncloa to get the approval of the national government.

“It’s a decision to applaud because it comes gets stronger”Said the Minister of Territorial Policies and government spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez.

“At the moment both municipalities are in limbo, without being able to access the economic benefits of a small municipality, at the same time that they cannot oppose the monetary boost that a big city receives”, justified the desire to join the city. mayor Quintana, by don Benito.

“The new city would be entitled to more national and European aid,” he added.

Mayor Gallardo insisted that the union would be a good omen “A better futurewith greater and better possibilities, not only for the future city that emerges, but for all the municipalities of the region, which will benefit from this union, which will be a pole of attraction for investments ”.

“Do you agree that Don Benito’s municipal council exercises the initiative for the merger process with the municipality of Villanueva de la Serena?” and “Do you agree that the Municipality of Villanueva de la Serena exercises the initiative for the merger process with the municipality of Don Benito?”he affirmed the proposal that the neighbors had to accept or reject.

In Villanueva, the 90.49 percent of votes they went for the “yes”. In Don Benito, the official data indicated a 66.2 percent in favor of the union.

And although the victory of the “yes” was officially recognized as valid, the Siempre Don Benito platform and other neighbors who do not adhere to the merger of the municipalities, assured that there was unclear management of results.

For the union to take off, it was necessary to have it 66 percent of the votes in favor of the merger, which would not materialize until 2027.

Of the elections of that year – to which the two current mayors of San Benito and Villanueva will not be able to present themselves – a new mayor or mayor would emerge who will govern the new city council.

First name

Through a statement, the mayors informed the neighbors of the proposal to be given a new name to the result of the union of the two peoples: “It would symbolize the beginning of a new stage, which would allow an immediate intellectual association concerning a whole and not a sum of parts”.

And he added: “I suppose a new name for the municipality would allow for an immediate meaning with a single identity“.

was created then a committee of experts At which personalities from teaching, philology, history and research were summoned who, after deliberating for more than two months, proposed two names: Plateau of the Guadiana Y Concord of the Guadianaalluding to the -Guadiana- river, a great protagonist of the region.

but to the neighbors Neither of them liked them.

Rejection

“The names generated a general feeling of rejection. reality is on the wayneither to Don Benito nor to Villanueva those names have been understoodMayor Gallardo admitted that he had to be escorted by the police, along with the mayor of the other country, when they announced the finalist names that infuriated the neighbors.

Among them, María Carmen González de Córdova, 45, from Extremadura born to Don Benito, has decided to collect signatures so that the name of his people may not be touched.

“When they said they were going to change the name of the city, I was outraged. I don’t currently live in Don Benito but I was born there, I have my whole family there and now I go there every fortnight “, says María Carmen aa Clarione.

Today he lives in Toledo, two and a half hours from Don Benito. He goes there to see his family every fortnight.

“I don’t understand why we change the name of some countries that have a history,” he insists. The mayor of Villanueva says that in a few years we will not remember what the towns were called, but I do not want it. I don’t understand. I am indignant. She pisses me off. I have a very strong feeling with Don Benito. My father is from Villanueva de la Serena ».

“We will lose a lot of identity with the merger Maria Carmen believes. We will be something else. At least leave us our names. We lose, for example, parties, which identify a city. The Virgin of the Crosses is our patroness. We can’t have two. We won’t be able to organize twice as many parties as the rest of the cities. “

To avoid this, he collects signatures on a petition he has opened on the change.org platform. “No to the change of name of Don Benito-Villanueva”, he titled it. He has already collected more than 700 signatures.

“Vote not to lose the name of our peoples”, asks María Carmen.

Meanwhile, the merger process has stopped. The mayors have promised to “work and not get out of the chair” until they find a name to baptize the new city that everyone likes.

Background

In the recent history of Spain there is two antecedents of the union of cities: the merger of the municipalities of A Coruña Cesuras and Oza dos Ríos, in July 2013, and that of Cerdedo and Cotobade, in Pontevedra, in January 2017.

In this case, few remember the time when pregnant women from both countries gave birth in the Don Benito hospital and the children were registered as born in this municipality, until Villanueva shouted to the sky and made the children of the families of the village go. register of his own municipality and not in that of Don Benito.

Those who militate for the fusion of peoples speak of it “Historic occasion” for the future of young people in Extremadura, autonomy with more people from Extremadura living outside it and with less presence of Spaniards from other communities.

“Identity does not feed”say those who are in favor of the union, convinced that the destiny of Don Benito and Villanueva is to merge into a single name.

Madrid. Corresponding

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