Imagine if Spain would join to Portugal

Luis   Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:16 am GMT
Spain would have much to gain from being united with Portugal. Just picture all of the Portuguese-speaking world joined with all of the Spanish-speaking world...what a power to be reckoned with Iberia would be! Portuguese and Spanish speakers together in the world amount for over 600 million!!! Can't you see what an political and economic avantage that would be for both? Brazil and Spanish America are already strongly joined by the Mercosur/sul agreement. The Spanish speaking countries are being taught Portuguese as a second language in their schools, and Spanish is being learned in Brazilian schools as a second language. Wake up doubters, lusofone/hispanic world could be destined to become the next great superpower.
gilipollas integral   Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:25 am GMT
What a load of Shuimo! I mean, Shit.
Even Spanish speaking countries can't agree with other Spanish speaking countries so why would they agree with Portuguese speaking ones?
Lol   Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:32 am GMT
Luis, are you suffering from 'mad cow disease'?
rep   Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:34 am GMT
<<Spanish is understood to various degrees by most Brazilians, due to the similarities of the languages. But Spanish is slightly more common on the border of Brazil with Spanish-speaking countries, and the mixture of Spanish and Portuguese is jokingly known as Portuñol.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Brazil
<<Spanish is important in Brazil because of its proximity to and increased trade with its Spanish-speaking neighbors; for example, as a member of the Mercosur trading bloc.[17] In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making Spanish language teaching mandatory in both public and private secondary schools.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
<<... president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed into law a bill making the teaching of Spanish mandatory in all high
schools. Educational institutes, both public and private, will have five years to comply.

The new law on Spanish teaching was authored by Federal Deputy Átila Lira from the PSDB party of Piauí and was
passed by the National Congress in July. >>
http://www.brazzilmag.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=3488
Rui   Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:16 am GMT
You are even forgetting African countries that have Portuguese as their official language.

But the fact is that the only argument that your presenting for the union is geographical. That's not enough. I'm Portuguese and studied in Spain, and I can tell you that the differences between the two countries are quite big. Besides, Spain has to deal with the basques and catalans on their own :)
Guest   Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:47 am GMT
Spain has to deal with the basques and catalans on their own :)


But the Basques and Catalans are richer than the average Spanish region, Portugal is poorer .
Guest   Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:53 am GMT
Lo bueno sería que Brasil, Argentina , Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay se unieran en un gran país llamado CSU: Cono Sur Unido. El brasileño y el español americano se parecen más entre sí y son más mutualmente inteligibles que el portugués europeo y el español . También tienen una base étnica similar, salvo en Brasil que hay más negros, pero podrían ser reubicados en Venezuela.
iedreamer   Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:00 am GMT
Why not take this a step further. Imagine joining all the Indo-european countries into one grand union. Most of Europe, Russia, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, and even parts of the Middle East and India would join together politically, economically, culturally, and militarily into one vast country.

If we somehow could achieve tight political and cultural unity, just this would be a real superpower to be reckoned with. Perhaps it could even stand up to China in the decades ahead.
cnalbus   Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:19 am GMT
<<What a load of Shuimo! I mean, Shit.
Even Spanish speaking countries can't agree with other Spanish speaking countries so why would they agree with Portuguese speaking ones? >>

The key to overcoming differences may lie in choosing the right leader for the new Iberian Union (IU). We'd need a spirited and charismatic leader, someone with a high profile who's at home on the world stage and gets noticed often by the world press. I propose Hugo Chavez of Venezuela -- he might be just what the IU needs to get off the ground.
Guest   Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:41 pm GMT
It would be more interesting for Spain to recover Roussillon and perhaps a bit more of Southern France than to join with Portugal in such union. I would say No to the union and No to the "charismatic leader" that proposes that .
Skippy   Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:31 pm GMT
It may be a good idea to sit back and see how the whole EU thing works out first...
rep   Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:52 pm GMT
<<Spain would join to Portugal>>
Germany would join to Austria,German Switzerland,Luxembourg,Liechtenstein;The Netherlands-to Flanders (or both-to Germany), France-to Wallony (except German speaking community in East Belgium-it would join to Germany), French Switzerland;Italy-to Italian Switzerland;Denmark-to Norway,Sweden,Iceland,Faroes,Poland-to Czech republic,Slovakia;Latvia to Lithuania and so on.....
Mr.Clever   Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:30 pm GMT
Why not? Spanish and Portuguese are practically the same people.
klax   Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:39 pm GMT
I don't think so, lots of Portuguese dislike Spain and Spanish....Most of them are rather nationalist
Evynória   Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:58 pm GMT
Portugal is poorer for Spain, then why join the both?

For Spain inherit the Portuguese's beggars and vices?