The merger of Don Benito and Villanueva, at a standstill

'Vegas Altas' is no longer a dream by 2027 but a true nightmare with a completely uncertain ending. The new city that was on its way to becoming the third most important in Extremadura due to the historical merger between the Badajoz municipalities of Don Benito (37,120 inhabitants) and Villanueva de la Serena (25,837) could end on deaf ears. The results of the last municipal elections have dynamited the road map designed by the socialist mayors of both towns, José Luis Quintana and Miguel Ángel Gallardo, who had led the process with the endorsement of the popular consultation of February 2022 that raised suspicions in Don Benito's count. From that same night the merger became cloudy, with a divided and tense atmosphere that has now moved to the municipal polls.

As a consequence of this, the irruption as a second political force of Siempre Don Benito, which was born in this context as a civil platform to later become a political party, has completely disrupted the planned roadmap.. He focused his campaign on the message that voting for them “was the last chance to stop the merger”. The effect was to leave Quintana without an absolute majority (9 out of 14 councilors passed) and in the hands of a possible agreement between the deniers and the Popular Party (third option at the polls with 5 councilors).

To get an idea of the significance of the change, in the city of Don Benito – without counting the six minor entities of the region that later add up the votes obtained to form the City Council – the victory corresponded to the new political formation (6,430 votes), ahead of PSOE (6,417) and PP (3,449). Including the smaller entities, the Socialists obtained the support of 7,856 citizens (in 2019 there were 10,140), Siempre Don Benito of 6,621 and PP of 4,213. “With our votes, the merger cannot come out,” said acting mayor José Quintana on election night. «The people do not want this merger. The PP must reflect on what the people have spoken, “Always Don Benito was ready to say. “Our party will always act with Don Benito in mind,” it was warned from the popular ranks.

Candidacy of Siempre Don Benito, second force on 28-M. THE WORLD

Several days later, the negotiation process is already underway.. The first appointment was this Tuesday and the following, on Friday to determine the governance of the City Council, including who will be the mayor, but in which the positions on the merger will be decisive in reaching an agreement. The PP, led by councilor Ángel Valadés, has sat down separately with the other two formations, which do not maintain any contact between them. “The meeting has gone on the right track, there is a chance of an agreement,” the candidate for Siempre Don Benito, María Fernanda Sánchez, a retired civil servant who aspires to be mayor, assures this newspaper.. The final decision is in the hands of the party led at the regional level by María Guardiola, who has always defended her position “in favor of the merger”, but has criticized the forms: “It has been a process without transparency, so we claim that the Processes have to be clean and clear, otherwise distrust is generated among citizens.

Pedro Miguel Noblejas, PP candidate in Don Benito, maintains that the process “has not been transparent, there has been no information for the citizens and even the name of the new city, 'Vegas Altas', has been imposed, when most of the citizens preferred that of 'Don Benito-Villanueva'”, criticizes. Claims the Mayor's Office for being the only party with the capacity to dialogue with the rest and calls for a possible merger much longer in time, without urgency. “The first thing is to focus on Don Benito in the next four years, on his urgent needs”. And he confesses: “We are suffering a lot of pressure, in one direction and in another.”

Analysis, study and dialogue

In its electoral program, the PP advocated calmly opening “a period of analysis, study and dialogue with all the information possible in the face of the total lack of information” and betting on reviewing “the union agreement to know in detail the true advantages and drawbacks” of the merger. The main thing is that it introduced a possible solution to tackle the suspicions left by the referendum result in Don Benito, where the 'Yes' vote won, after three hours of information blackout, by just a few tenths -66.27% when it had been established at 66%-: “If the citizens demand it, we will propose the realization of a new consultation,” advocates the PP.

Forever Don Benito, the halting of the merger process would not entail any legal problem: «Everything that has been done during this time is smoke, only a non-binding popular consultation was held here and then the mayors signed a protocol with the Government – on March 3 of this year – which has to be ratified by the plenary sessions of both city councils, and now the PSOE in a minority in Don Benito cannot move it forward». Meanwhile, after 28-M, a platform in favor of the merger has been set up overnight, which has already organized its first rallies. “They believed that we were going to take out two or three and that we were not going to be decisive and it has been quite a surprise for them, so now they start these things, with people supposedly interposed, to take out all the artillery in order to discredit us. and not lose power”, highlights the candidate for Siempre Don Benito.

Miguel Ángel Gallardo, mayor of Villanueva de la Serena -who did win by an absolute majority-, and in turn president of the Badajoz Provincial Council, tries to put pressure on the possible new president of the Junta de Extremadura, María Guardiola, so that her formation does not agree with Siempre Don Benito: “He has not yet clearly positioned himself as the previous president of the regional PP, José Antonio Monago, did”. Regarding the possibility that the process does not go ahead, he declared: “As mayor, frankly, I am sorry because it is the best and largest social, economic and political project, not only for the residents of the two towns, but for all Extremadurans.”

Regarding the results in Don Benito that cast doubt on the union process, Gallardo has also said that he will always feel “proud” of having tried “with the greatest of strengths something that was infinitely good” although he pointed out: “We are not going to lose forces if Don Benito's political parties do not want the merger”, which was expected to be historic, and now hangs by a thread.