There is more than one reason to celebrate in Spain.

The vaccination campaign is progressing faster than in few other countries, and the first billions from the Corona recovery fund are just arriving from Brussels.

Major Spanish regional princes, however, prefer to argue with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Even the presence of King Felipe did not stop them when they met on Friday in Salamanca in the Plaza Mayor for the traditional group picture of the “Conference of Presidents”.

Hans-Christian Roessler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, based in Madrid.

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It is almost a tradition that one of the 17 regional presidents is missing.

Because despite the recent rapprochement with Madrid after leading Catalan separatists were pardoned, Pere Aragonès, the new Catalan regional president, stayed away from the “Conference of Presidents”.

The PP chairman chooses tough words

This time it was not the presence of the king that prevented Aragonès from participating. Behind the thick walls of the monastery of San Esteban, where the regional presidents have retired for a short retreat, the issue was the distribution of the eagerly awaited "Manna from Europe", as the El País newspaper put it in a nutshell: 140 in total Billions of euros are available as part of the EU reconstruction fund, which Spain played an important role in creating. About the EU funds could be decided "not in five minutes, but only in joint work", said the Catalan Aragonès. He was referring to the short speaking time given to each of the 17 regional presidents on Friday.

The conservative Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso has therefore announced a boycott for the future.

In Salamanca, she will take part in a presidential conference for the last time, she said.

The interests of the nearly seven million Madrid residents, who contribute 20 percent of the Spanish economic output, are not sufficiently taken into account at these meetings, complained the PP politician.

The only purpose of the conference was to have Sánchez “speak, get applause and nothing else”.

In the end, all conservative regional presidents took part, even if the PP chairman Pablo Casado spoke of a “Persian bazaar” that everyone was “fed up with”.

The PP had already described the conference as “fraud”, “fake news” and an “act of propaganda”.

Spain as the "avant-garde of the entire planet"

The socialist head of government Sánchez did not hold back in Salamanca with self-praise. When it comes to corona vaccinations, Spain belongs to the "avant-garde of the entire planet," he said. At the same time, he announced that BioNTech would deliver 3.4 million additional doses of its vaccine in August; 70 percent of the Spanish population had been vaccinated by the end of August. The Prime Minister proudly pointed out that the economy had picked up speed again. On Thursday he took stock of his left-wing coalition, which has been in office since the beginning of 2020. 33 percent of all goals have already been achieved, he calculated; the legislative period until 2023 still gives plenty of time for the rest.

In Salamanca, Sánchez took a step towards the regional presidents.

He not only vaguely promised more “cogobernanza” - that is, common governance.

The central government wants to give the regions more responsibility for the use of EU funds.

You should manage up to 55 percent of the 19 billion euros that Spain will receive in 2021 for overcoming the Corona crisis.

After an advance payment, further tranches will be released every six months if Spain meets the criteria agreed with the European Commission.

Basque head of government sets conditions

The dispute, however, revolves around how the funds are distributed.

The PP does not trust the government and wants an independent institution to be responsible for it.

One reason for this is the alleged preferential treatment of the Basque Country and Catalonia by Sánchez, whose left-wing minority government in the Spanish parliament depends on the votes of Catalan and Basque regional parties.

The Basque Prime Minister Iñigo Urkullu was only prepared to travel to Salamanca after the central government granted the region, which enjoys extensive financial autonomy, additional revenue of EUR 220 million annually from the new taxes on financial transactions and services on the Internet at the last minute.

Accordingly, Urkullu took his place in the group picture on Friday morning.