Rui Moreira put forward the proposal last week during Cities Forum 2020, which took place in Porto. The idea is to create an Iberlux in the Iberian space, using the Benelux as a model, a space for cooperation between the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. What the Mayor of Porto called “a coordinated strategy between Portugal and Spain”, the El País newspaper this Wednesday deals with a “merger between Spain and Portugal”.
“Iberolux, the merger of Spain and Portugal into a new entity”, is the proposal of the mayor of Porto, the independent Rui Moreira “, begins the text of the Spanish daily, written by the correspondent in Lisbon Javier Martin Del Barrio. transcribed the statements by Rui Moreira, made to the Spanish agency Efe outside the Cities Forum 2020.
“For hundreds of years we have lived with our backs turned, with enormous mistrust. Fortunately, that reality no longer exists. The link between our cross-border cities is obvious. We speak a language that is not the same, but we understand each other. We have an Ibero-American space that is essential for both countries. We now have to do the work of building Iberolux“, said the Mayor of Porto.
Moreira’s statements have been published since January 30 under the title “Mayor calls for the creation of Iberolux” in Porto.com portal, with the mayor saying that I would like to see a more effective approach, not to mention a merger of countries. The aforementioned model, the Benelux, is a mirror of that, a political-economic union of cooperation between neighboring countries – Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – that maintain independence.
Rui Moreira told Efe agency that the borders between Galicia and Portugal practically no longer exist, there are thousands of Spanish tourists visiting Portuguese cities, there are Spanish students, as in Extremadura, learning the Portuguese language. All arguments for closer cooperation. “The construction work for Iberolux needs to be done,” said Moreira.
This proposal found an informative echo in other Spanish media, such as the Voice of Galicia.
Saramago anticipated Iberia
Whether due to the form of deep cooperation or union of countries, Iberism is not a novelty, as El País recalls. In the 18th century, there were already those who spoke about the theme after the violent separation of 640. And then, and especially in the 20th century, there were many intellectuals openly defending the idea, especially José Saramago. In interview to Diário de Notíciass on July 15, 2007, the Nobel Prize for Literature and author of “Jangada de Pedra” stated: “I am not a prophet, but Portugal will eventually integrate into Spain.”
For Saramago, the Iberian Union would happen within 50 years and there would always be a cultural identity. He anticipated a “territorial, administrative and structural integration”, in which “we would not stop speaking Portuguese and writing in our language”.
António Lobo Antunes, Miguel Torga or Fernando Pessoa also wrote or defended one Iberia, although with different foundations and models. In Spain the same happened with intellectuals like Miguel de Unamuno and Ortega and Gasset.
However, no political party on either side of the border has ever dared to take the proposal to elections. The only exception, says El Pais, has been the Iberian Party, formed in 2015 in Castilla-La Mancha to participate in the elections, without success so far. In Portugal, the idea of an Iberian union was never formulated in terms of a political project.
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