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The government spokeswoman has demanded today from the Palacio de La Moncloa the presidents of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, and the Basque Executive, Iñigo Urkullu, that "it is mandatory" that next Friday they attend the Conference of Presidents to be held in The Rioja. "The meeting is important enough," said María Jesús Montero, "and I can't think of any reason why they shouldn't attend." An absence, he also warned, would be "a lack of respect" for the rest of the autonomous leaders.

Both Torra and Urkullu have requested that the meeting be held electronically, as the previous 15 since the state of alarm was declared. In any case, the two leaders have not attended multilateral meetings for a long time and only demand bilateral meetings with the Government of Spain.

Montero has described the meeting as "obligatory, essential and necessary" given the gravity of the situation that Spain has lived in and given the importance of the European funds that the autonomous communities will be able to dispose of. For all these reasons, the Minister of Finance also said after the Council of Ministers, "the highest authorities in the country have to analyze the situation and study how European transfers are distributed."

As the spokesperson has also advanced, the Prime Minister intends, from now on, to convene this body monthly, although not all meetings will be face-to-face, such as that of Friday in San Millán de la Cogolla. Montero has highlighted that the Executive has organized 15 conferences of telematic presidents while the state of alarm has lasted, but that now and with an end-of-course summary, Moncloa has considered that it is convenient to make an in-person appointment.

Asked about Urkullu's urgency to meet the Basque State-Government Mixed Commission, Montero has assured that this meeting will take place, without specifying when. And she has once again urged the Basque President to attend the Rioja conclave next Friday.

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has also demanded that the appointment be telematic, but due to Moncloa's response, the Government is not going to admit another type of assistance other than face-to-face.

Montero has highlighted that with the conclave the Government wants to work with the autonomic executives "from unity and cooperation", although "with the utmost respect for the sphere of competence and with a fundamental principle of defense of the State of autonomies that defines our Constitution" .

The Basque and Catalan presidents have traditionally been absent from the different conferences of presidents that the governments of the PSOE or the PP have called, until, after the activation of the state of alarm, telematics began last March.

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Know more

  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • Spain
  • Quim Torra
  • Inigo Urkullu
  • Maria Jesus Montero
  • PP
  • PSOE
  • The Rioja
  • Madrid's community
  • Isabel Díaz Ayuso

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