in The end, only a place remained empty. For the first Time since the beginning of 2017, all Spanish regional presidents met again on Friday. The rare group picture with mouth protection should signal according to the will of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez the common riser for the reconstruction after the pandemic. Even king Felipe had travelled especially in the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla in the Rioja Region.
Hans-Christian Rößler
Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, with its headquarters in Madrid.
F. A. Z.
The Coronavirus that caused the crisis have been transformed into a “economic and social emergency,” said Sánchez. The economy had decreased performance from April to June, to 18.5 percent. With the regional President, the government wanted to talk to the boss about how Spain, the 140 billion Euro will be spend, with which the EU is supporting the country. The new infections are rising meanwhile, back In Spain, there are already 53,6 cases in the past 14 days, per 100,000 population. This is the highest figure in the EU after Luxembourg and Romania.
But instead to the President of the conference for Unity and to use the opportunity to talk to countless video conferences back personally to each other, were two of the participants back into old reflexes back. Only on Friday morning, the Basque regional President, Iñigo Urkullu had promised to join the event. The Catalan regional President, Quim Torra stayed away from the Meeting: He had to defend the “interests of the Catalans”, and lots of photos does not stand for “sense available to us,” he said. In addition, it is known that the Republican Separatist on the side of the Spanish monarch, uncomfortable, and him, if possible, out of the way.
A relationship on an equal footing?
Both the Basque and the Catalan regional government hold already little of such large-scale conferences, in which only the right, next to 15 other colleagues sit. The two regions, which the Spanish Constitution, because of their language and culture have a special Status, want to relations “on a par” with the Central government in Madrid. Suspicious, she had watched the way in Madrid during the first wave of the pandemic in regional competences had intervened.
