Don Benito and Villanueva are in crisis and the counter to merge can go back to zero

They were on their way to becoming the third largest city in Extremadura, only behind Cáceres and Badajoz.. In total, they would add about 60,000 inhabitants. But the municipal elections have turned everything upside down, and now the union between Don Benito (37,010 registered) and Villanueva de la Serena (25,759) is experiencing new turbulence. Both towns approved joining last year. There was even a name, Vegas Altas, and a date, 2027, for the inauguration of the future enclave. However, a denialist party –created solely to paralyze the merger– has entered the first of these municipalities with no less than seven councillors, three more than the PP and two seats equal to the PSOE, which led the Consistory.

The socialist mayor, José Luis Quintana, has lost the absolute majority with which he managed to promote, along with his Villanovense counterpart, the referendum that said yes to marriage. One day after the new city councils are constituted, it is not clear what can happen and almost everything seems to depend on what the final government pact is..

Controversies in Don Benito

In February 2022, when the referendum was held, the result was much more controversial and adjusted in Don Benito than in Villanueva: it was barely accepted by 0.27% of the votes. The opposite was true among their next-door neighbors, with more than 90% voting in favor of the change.. With the new distribution of forces left by 28-M, there are now two options on the table that could determine the future of the merger. On the one hand, the Popular Party has extended its hand to Siempre Don Benito, the newly created group that wants to paralyze it: it offers its support to repeat the consultation in exchange for forming a government together and dividing up the mayoralty, two years each.

“Any change in the city council passes through us, and for this reason we demand the formation of a joint government with a mayor of the PP in the last two years of the legislature”, thus stated their position. With this formula, nothing could guarantee that Vegas Altas would come into existence.. So, to save the furniture and not stop the merger, it was the socialists who first picked up this glove. That same day, they proposed to the popular candidate, Pedro Noblejas, to apply this same formula with them and not with the detractors of the consultation.. That is to say, that he is a councilor in the second half of the legislature and the PSOE holds the Mayor's Office at the beginning.

Negotiations against the clock

In the midst of this crossover of proposals, Siempre Don Benito made it clear that they also have their own conditions. The second most powerful party after the elections accepted the PP's invitation, but only halfway. Its leader, María Fernanda Sánchez, asked the popular for an imminent meeting –because there was one day left to form new city councils and an agreement had to be reached– to renegotiate. She wanted to be mayor for all four years of the legislature, and not just half. In exchange, he would grant them several councilors. In the countdown to decide the government, the situation in Don Benito is, to say the least, convulsed.

The reality in Villanueva de la Serena is totally different. Its mayor, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, also a socialist, has managed to revalidate the absolute majority he had and support for the merger was the majority from the beginning. But after the results and the scenario left by the elections in the neighboring municipality – which they had already decided to join after decades of claims – he was “disappointed” at the political situation in Don Benito. In his opinion, he had given in to the “pressure” exerted by groups opposed to the creation of Vegas Altas. He even equated it with the pro-independence process in Catalonia: “We are with Villanueva robbing us, which sounds like Spain robbing us”.

few precedents

That two municipalities unite is something that in Spain has few precedents. The process is also complicated.. Since the mid-1980s and as far as the record is known, there have only been two popular consultations to merge localities, both in Galicia. The central government must first approve them, as was done in the Council of Ministers with the recent case of Don Benito and Villanueva, having previously obtained the go-ahead in the plenary session of each locality.. The Galician precedents were successful. So, in case the political situation or other circumstances don't frustrate the process, this may be the third municipal union in memory..

The main argument among the defenders of the union is that a big city would attract more investment and better infrastructure to their territories.. In addition, by having more inhabitants together than separately, they can qualify for other subsidies. Or boost its main economic engine, the agri-food industry. The two towns have 16,000 irrigated hectares and there are many companies, mostly SMEs, that are linked to the sector.