Swords raised at the first meeting of regional leaders in Barcelona

Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa, the convener and host, respectively, of the conference of presidents being held today for the first time in Barcelona, ​​are appealing for consensus, calm debate, and even institutional cordiality. But the regional leaders of the People's Party (PP), who are the majority at the meeting, are arriving with their swords raised. Not surprisingly, most of them will meet again on Sunday in Madrid, at the anti-government demonstration called by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, chanting "democracy or mafia."

In Feijóo's absence, Madrid's Isabel Díaz Ayuso is gearing up to lead the PP's hostilities against the central government at this summit, which, as is tradition, will begin with a family photo presided over by Felipe VI. However, after a brief meeting with the regional presidents, the King will withdraw. And then the Palau de Pedralbes will become the stage for the tireless partisan battle between the PP and the PSOE.

Despite the government's acceptance of the agenda demanded by the People's Party (PP), in order to neutralize its threat to boycott the event, the president of the Community of Madrid made it clear yesterday that she is not coming to Barcelona today to smile. In addition to the fact that the conference of presidents is being held in the Catalan capital for the first time in more than twenty years—which, in the opinion of the Moncloa, is a symbol of the success of its policy of defusing the conflict sparked by the independence process —this meeting also features, as a major novelty, the fact that for the first time, regional leaders will be able to use the different official languages ​​of the state, with simultaneous translation, as is already the case in the plenary sessions of the Congress of Deputies.

It was an express request from the Catalan Illa and the Basque Imanol Pradales, to which the Minister of Territorial Policy, the Canary Islands native Ángel Víctor Torres, immediately gave the green light.

All the Popular Party barons are conspiring to fight against the singular financing of Catalonia.

But Ayuso stood in the way of this multilingual development. The Madrid leader threatened to boycott the event if she heard anyone speaking Catalan, Basque, or Galician. "Either they tell me in Spanish, or I'll walk out. And along the way, I'll figure out what to do with those earpieces," she warned. "I'm not going to wear them, because instead of promoting Spanish, what they're doing is using Catalan to make provincialism about secessionism, which is nothing more than corruption that the Community of Madrid doesn't intend to pay for," she emphasized. "A real scam," she concluded.

Furthermore, Ayuso yesterday responded with a rejection of the letter that Pedro Sánchez sent on Wednesday to all regional presidents, proposing to triple funding for public housing policy. "We are not going to adhere to a proposal that seems improvised to us, that is not based on prior debate, and that was communicated to us by letter 48 hours before the conference of presidents. And that not only lacks planning and budgetary support, but also clearly violates the distribution of powers established in our Constitution," the Madrid native stated.

At the same time, the PSOE also took aim at PP presidents in the run-up to the Barcelona meeting. First, at Ayuso, whom they asked to appear before the commission of inquiry into the alleged mask scheme, along with her partner, Alberto González Amador, and the former captain of the UCO (Union of Workers' Unions of Catalonia), Juan Vicente Bonilla. The Socialists also attacked the president of the Xunta (regional government), Alfonso Rueda, following the sexual assault complaint against a former minister.

In this tense atmosphere, the PP countered that Sánchez is sending twelve ministers to Barcelona to protect himself from the thirteen PP presidents: "It's not necessary, we're just going to talk," Génova sources joked after having managed to introduce all the points they wanted on the agenda.

And the truth is that the Popular Party barons will arrive in Barcelona with their homework done, having agreed on seven documents, which they have already submitted to the ministerial departments, with their proposals on regional financing, taxation, energy, health and social services, immigration policy, transportation, and housing.

Two decades of much noise and few agreements

The pluralistic Spain of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was projected in 2004 with the creation of the Conference of Presidents, early in his term. It was a historic meeting, bringing together for the first time the President of the Government of Spain with the Presidents of the autonomous communities around a table designed for dialogue and collaboration between administrations. However, partisan conflict has prevented this forum from serving as a stage for cooperation and significant agreements. Except for a brief period during the first months of lockdown due to the pandemic, when Pedro Sánchez convened the regional presidents 14 times between March 15 and June 14, 2020, all via virtual media, to coordinate measures in response to the health emergency. Sánchez held 20 meetings between 2020 and 2022, and one more in 2024, for institutional cooperation to mitigate the impact of the war in Ukraine. After the first meeting, Zapatero called three more, in 2005, 2007, and 2009. Mariano Rajoy held only two, in 2012 and 2017. At the latter, it was agreed to approve a new financing system that same year, a goal that has yet to be met.

Among other measures, the PP regional governments are calling for funding for early childhood education (ages 0-3), reversing the planned closure of nuclear power plants, combating illegal squatting, and tightening border controls to prevent the arrival of migrants—issues on which Vox is increasingly putting pressure, as seen in the budget agreements. But the main issues to be addressed will undoubtedly be the rejection of "debt mutualization" and the "uniqueness" of Catalonia.