The new name of the merger of Don Benito and Villanueva: Concordia del Guadiana or Mestas del Guadiana

• Referendum The very tight 66.27% of Don Benito in favor of yes will consummate the union with Villanueva de la Serena

• Politics The steps after the Don Benito-Villanueva de la Serena merger: from the name to salary equalization

The great unknown of the merger between

and

is now closer to being revealed.

and

have been the two names proposed by the Commission of 14 experts created for this purpose to name the city that will be created from the merger of the towns of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena, in the province of Badajoz , approved on February 20.

As explained by the president of said commission,

tonight, these names have been approved by the majority of the members of this commission and have been raised to the plenary session of the municipalities of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena.

Both corporations must from now on ratify one of these two proposals, and that resolution that will thus give rise to the definitive name.

The 42 councilors who make up the municipalities of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena will opt for one of the two proposals in plenary session.

The one with the most votes will give its name to the third most populous city in

.

Another of the procedures necessary for the new name to be official will be for the

approve these proposals, which will confirm that none of the terms can cause confusion with the name of any other municipality registered in Spain.

At the same time that the two finalist names were announced, a demonstration against the merger has gone through the streets of Don Benito in protest against those who consider irregularities in the merger process and specifically in the result of the votes in this locality, which took several hours to be known, and not so that of Villanueva, which was blamed on a computer error, which raised suspicions given the tightness of the result.

It must be remembered that a tight result in the vote, with a narrow margin in the city of Don Benito after a recount as exciting as it was controversial, allowed in February to give the green light to the merger process, which will take place in 2027. The referendum established that it was necessary that the votes in favor reached 66% in each of the two municipalities.

In Villanueva, the yes was the majority, with 90.49%, while in Don Benito it was 66.2% and the invalid votes were annulled so that the percentage ultimately exceeded the established limit.

The future municipal center will have an area of ​​about 700 square kilometers and a population of around 63,000 inhabitants, which will make it the third largest town in Extremadura in number of inhabitants, behind

and

, and ahead of

, which in today is in that position.

As a basis for the denomination it had been established that the new name would not include the current denominations of the two cities, so the designation had to be completely new.

Two weeks ago, the labor commission had asked for an extension in the term to determine the different proposals because the issue "entailed great difficulty," according to the spokesman for said commission.

This, together with the need to carry out a prior consultation in the Local Entities Registry about the possible inclusion of either of the two names in said registry, led them to request said extension.

Fusion Benefits

The mayors,

(Don Benito) and

(Villanueva de la Serena) wanted from the first moment to remove the name of the new town from the debate before voting so as not to generate controversy and focus on the economic benefits that it contemplates the fusion.

The members of the Commission belong to fields related to teaching, philology, history or research.

Among them are the Professor of Philology,

;

the doctor in Archeology

;

the director of the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida,

Unex professor

;

the writer

or the two chroniclers from both cities, Antonio Barrantes and

.

The mayors have promised not to appear in the elections scheduled for that date and a corporation made up of 25 councilors would be established (now there are 21 in each town hall, 42 in total).

A study by the University of Extremadura highlighted that the region of La Serena would become the second economic pole in the province of Badajoz, with 11.2% of the Provincial Added Value.

In addition, it would become the first regional economic benchmark in the agriculture and livestock sector, with 19.7%;

the first in the industrial sector, with 8.1%;

or the second in business and market services.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Badajoz

• Caceres

• Estremadura