Tension and tension in Don Benito after the halt of the historic merger process with Villanueva de la Serena

David Vigario Merida

Merida

Updated Tuesday, February 27, 2024-18:04

On February 20, 2022, a historic popular consultation took place in two cities in the province of Badajoz (

Don Benito

-37,495 inhabitants- and

Villanueva de la Serena

-25,751-) that, being physically separated by less than nine kilometers, intended to unite in a unique municipality and become the third city by population and economic power in Extremadura.

That claim was championed by the socialist mayors of both cities (

José Luis Quintana

and

Miguel Ángel Gallardo

), but that dream that was born with the name of 'Vegas Altas' - after several controversies with the terminology - had to be completed from the point of legal hearing in the first quarter of 2027, but today it is not only a political chimera but has become an enormous political and social tension in Don Benito, the town where there have always been the most doubts among its neighbors.

The latest example was Monday's plenary session, which ended with a tremendous brawl, insults, threats and even the mayor,

María Fernández Sánchez

, scolding the journalists who were covering the session.

It is not the first time that this atmosphere has been experienced in plenary sessions.

The controversy has been established since the eventful and agonizing vote count on the night of the referendum in this town (66.27% of votes in Don Benito - when the margin was 66% - while in Villanueva it was resolved with 90 .49%).

This small figure in the Don Benito municipality triggered various theories about an alleged

blow

in the count but, above all, it increased the division", which led a citizen platform,

Siempre Don Benito

, to establish itself as a political party and run in the municipal elections. with the motto of

No to the merger

. In addition, its candidate - and now mayor - María Fernández Sánchez, denounced that "the figures were manipulated by removing the null votes so that they would not be counted as participants." And since May 28, Last year he reiterated his position: "Don Benito said 'no' with his vote at the polls in the municipal elections."

The year after the consultation, Don Benito's PSOE lost its absolute majority, going from 14 to 9 councilors and Quintana abandoned municipal life after eight years as mayor to become the Government delegate in Extremadura since December.

A pact between the Popular Party (5 councilors) and the 'independent' group (7) removed him from power and both parties shared the municipal baton equally (two years for each).

The scenario for the merger had been broken.

The PP has argued that it was better to let time pass for the waters to calm down and above all to guarantee over time a merger process with greater legal certainty.

That the legislature was going to be complicated was already sensed on the same day as the mayor's proclamation, who left the City Hall escorted by the Local Police.

From then on, in practically every municipal plenary session of this legislature, tension, disqualifications, insults and tension have been protagonists.

Like this past Monday, whose session ended in a monumental brawl between several of the attendees, with special prominence for the mayor's husband and María Fernanda Sánchez herself, who went so far as to scold journalists for recording what is happening after the turn of request for questions.

The councilor had not allowed questions from the public that were not related to the agenda, which led one of the attendees to exclaim: "This is fascism", which provoked the immediate response of the mayor's own husband, who pounced on him, insulted him and even threatened to kill him.

At that moment, in the midst of a great commotion in the Plenary Hall, several councilors, other neighbors present and even the mayor herself tried to mediate, who, however, addressed the journalists present who were recording what happened and specifically said: to one of them: "You want morbidity, that's what you want for the citizens. You upload that now to networks. You cause tension, that's what you come for. You don't give news, you don't report anything and you hide from the people everything we are doing ".

One of the public attendees has filed a complaint at the Police Station.

When the journalists were leaving City Hall, other councilors from the government team addressed them and continued with the same "inquisitorial" tone, according to those affected themselves.

As a result of what happened, the PSOE of Extremadura issued a statement today in which it called the mayor's attitude "inadmissible" and called her confrontation with journalists "regrettable attacks on freedom of expression", which is why they have demanded the resignation of the first mayor for her "anti-democratic attitude" and "for her intolerable and reprehensible attitude towards all those matters that are not to her taste or interest, which delegitimizes democratic values ​​and strains social coexistence in our municipality."

Likewise, they have asked the president of the Extremadura Regional Government,

María Guardiola

, to "intervene and break the pact between her party and Siempre Don Benito."

For its part, the PP has asked that the tension be "reduced" in Don Benito and that "there be moderation and rationality" in this town and in the municipal plenary sessions while they wanted to make it clear that "they are not responsible for the behavior of other forces policies in Don Benito, according to

popular

sources . In this sense, they point out that the residents of the town of Don Benito "do not deserve" the situation that is being experienced in the municipality and in the municipal plenary sessions, which is why they insist on their request for the tension to be reduced.

Meanwhile, the three journalists' associations of Extremadura have condemned "the verbal attacks" suffered by the professionals who covered the municipal plenary session.

Faced with these "regrettable events, inappropriate for a municipal plenary session", as they have been called by the associations of Extremaduran journalists, they have asked the parties to demand that their political leaders "respect the work of journalists for the sake of freedom of expression, the right to information and democracy".