Almeida explodes with the Government for providing Frankfurt with the anti-money laundering headquarters: "They have sold us. We already know the price for Calviño"

CARLOS SEGOVIA Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-12:06

The mayor of Madrid,

José Luis Martínez-Almeida

, explodes against the Government for providing the European anti-money laundering headquarters, called Amla, to Frankfurt.

"

They have sold us. Spain did not vote for Madrid, but for Frankfurt. We already know the price for Calviño

," he told EL MUNDO.

The mayor thus alludes to the fact that the previous first vice president of the Government was named president of the European Investment Bank last December with German support.

He explains that the Spanish candidacy could have had a chance of winning, in which the negotiator of the European Parliament,

Eva Poptcheva,

also agrees in statements to this newspaper, but considers the government's passivity to be key, because it was the governments and not the MEPs that struck down the Madrid for this important new European headquarters, which will permanently house 500 Euro officials.

"The vice is of origin," says the mayor

when criticizing that Spain accepted that the 27 governments voted for the city with the most votes, which was Frankfurt in its internal session at the European Council.

This meant that in the subsequent joint vote with the European Parliament, where Madrid could win, there were no longer any possibilities, according to his version.

"Spain should never have accepted that the Council had a unanimous decision

, because that could only benefit Germany or France, never Spain." "I think this procedure was established with the Spanish presidency," he criticizes.

"But the Government knew that we could win votes in the European Parliament and should have voted for Madrid and deviated from that agreement.

It is incredible that Spain did not vote for Madrid and subordinated itself to a Council agreement

that could only benefit Germany and France and no one else," he reproaches.

The Ministry's version

Official sources from the Ministry of Economy do not deny that the Spanish ambassador's vote went to Frankfurt, but they frame it in the rules established during the Spanish presidency last year - which Calviño held in Ecofin - which obliged the 27 to support the city with the most support in the subsequent vote with the European Parliament.

"

We have played all our cards within the framework of the rules of the game

established by the Spanish presidency and we have pushed hard and to the end on both fronts."

they say in the Ministry of Economy.

As this newspaper already published, the French Government attributed German support to Calviño as an exchange of stickers so that Spain would be passive in defending Madrid's candidacy and facilitate Frankfurt's victory.