Two become one: Referendum on merging neighbouring towns authorised

A REFERENDUM on whether two towns in the far-western province of Badajoz should join together has been authorised by Spain's government – only the third of its type to go ahead since 1985.

Don Benito, home to around 37,300 inhabitants, and Villanueva de la Serena, with about 25,800, want to become one larger town of 63,100 – at least, the local councils in each of them do.

Their next step is to find out whether residents share their views, and the question on the ballot reads: “Do you agree with the local council of [your town] exercising the initiative for transacting a merger with [the other town]?”

Both local authorities have set a threshold of 66% of the populations of each of their municipalities giving a 'yes' vote; any less than this, or under two-thirds, means they will not go ahead. 

The poll will take place on February 20, 2022.

According to their mayors, the fusion of these two towns in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, which borders onto Portugal, is an 'historic social demand' and the decision to put it out to referendum was agreed on 'unanimously' by all parties in each local government.

If at least two-thirds of the headcount of both towns decide they want to join forces, the councils have set a provisional timescale of 10 years for completing the merger, although Spain's government and the regional president of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, have assured they will do what they can to link the towns up within as little time as possible if their people are in favour.

In the event it goes ahead, the resulting municipality of Don Benito-Villanueva de la Serena – the eventual name of which has not been discussed yet – will become the third-largest town in Extremadura, or city in fact, given that Villanueva de la Serena has a 'city' charter despite its small size.

The largest are the two provincial capitals, Badajoz (about 151,000 inhabitants) and Cáceres (around 96,500 residents), and a merger between Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena would push the splendid Roman city of Mérida into fourth place,with around 60,000 people.

At the moment, Don Benito is the fifth-largest, after Plasencia (about 40,000 inhabitants), followed by Almendralejo (around 34,000) and Villanueva de la Serena seventh, out of a total of 398 towns and villages – of which eight have populations of fewer than 100 inhabitants, with the smallest being Campillo de Deleitosa, at 79.

If Don Benito-Villanueva de la Serena went on to become the third-largest city in Extremadura, it would become the region's biggest agricultural-industrial sector hub and, according to its two local councils, this would mean a rise in general income and other socio-economic benefits for residents.

Petrolheads in Villanueva de la Serena are likely to vote 'yes', since it means the Classic Car Museum in Don Benito would become part of their town, too.

It is one of Don Benito's key visitor attractions, and some of the cars on display are over 100 years old.

Earlier town fusions in Spain

The only two town-mergers to have taken place in Spain to date were in 2013 and 2017, both in Galicia in the far north-west - the first being Oza and Cesuras (A Coruña province), now known as Oza-Cesuras, which started with 2,000 and 3,000 residents respectively and went on to total 5,000; and Cerdedo and Cotobade (Pontevedra province), the first with just under 1,800 and the second with nearly 4,000, became one village, Cerdedo-Cotobade.

So far, only these two have been authorised since the 1985 law permitted consultations on town-fusions.

That said, three villages in the province of Alicante, which had become two in the 19th century, merged and became one in 1971, with a regional government decree authorising its new name in 1991.

Setla and Mirarrosa merged in the 1800s to become Setla-Mirarrosa, and joined up with neighbouring Miraflor 50 years ago.

Since then, they were always known locally as 'the little villages', or els poblets, in valenciano, the regional language.

It would be another 20 years, though, before Els Poblets became the official name of the village, which is about 10 kilometres from the coastal town of Dénia, capital of the Marina Alta district – as well as having a beach of its own.

Els Poblets currently has 2,714 residents, according to the 2020 census, of whom 61% are foreigners, mostly from European countries.