CARLOS SEGOVIAThe Davos Special Envoy

Special Envoy Davos

Updated Monday,15January2024-18:29

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, is willing to see the president of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino, as a group, almost a year after the clash with him over the transfer of the headquarters of the Spanish multinational to the Netherlands. Government sources say that Sanchez wants to hold an informal meeting with the Spanish top executives, most of them from the Ibex, present in Davos next Wednesday and that there are no exclusions.

That means that if Del Pino agrees to join that group of businessmen, he will be able to participate in a multilateral meeting with the president. This is the first time since Del Pino phoned him on 28 February to inform him of the transfer of headquarters as a fact already approved by Ferrovial, and Sánchez never returned the call afterwards. ? There were informal contacts with Moncloa among his collaborators, but not between Sánchez and Del Pino, according to sources familiar with the matter.

This meeting will be the culmination of Sánchez's intense agenda in Davos which, as usual, involves a marathon of meetings with, above all, leaders of US and European multinationals, whose investments he wants to attract to Spain. The list exposed by government sources begins with a meeting on Tuesday afternoon with the president of Cisco, Chuck Robbins. Later, Sanchez will attend the dinner hosted by Intel President Pat Gelsinger, after declining the invitation last year. The Government assures that the President of the Government will only meet with presidents of multinationals in whom he perceives potential to invest in Spain.

Nor will he shy away from a reception of the US multinational, Qualcomm, organized by its president, Cristiano Amon. He already told EL MUNDO last year that he was willing to help the Spanish government attract investment in semiconductors, although he saw it as complicated.

The presidents of Siemens, Fujitsu and the pharmaceutical company Sanofi will also meet bilaterally the following day with Sánchez, as well as the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, and the president of Global Affairs of Google, Kent Walke. This company has also managed to get the leader of the PSOE to participate in a lunch of a hundred attendees on artificial intelligence, among other topics.

The President of the Government will coincide in Davos with, among others, heads of state, the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, but government sources assure that no bilateral meeting with him is on the agenda, because they say they have prioritized meetings with business leaders. His only public appearance will be near the end of the day on Wednesday with a speech to the plenary of the auditorium and, as EL MUNDO published this Sunday, immediately afterwards he wants the informal meeting with the president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres, the president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete and other Spanish executives present.

By linking this appointment with his public intervention, it is easier for Sánchez to avoid last year's sit-in by the heads of the Ibex to his intervention in the plenary. The first row that was reserved for them was practically deserted and most of the leaders of the Ibex preferred to see Sánchez behind closed doors in a meeting on the morning of the same day.

The Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, and the Minister of Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá, will also attend the meeting in Davos.