A "movie star" entrance to cast a spell on Madrid's economic and media landscape
Salvador Illa seeks refuge among his own people to overtake the Spanish capital.
MadridUnder the majestic chandelier in the Círculo de Bellas Artes's columned hall, photographers impatiently awaited the entrance of Salvador Illa. Before then, the flashes had already gone off. Although this Thursday's conference in Madrid hadn't been seen for some time—"it's the Island playing the role of the old Convergence," recalled a voice who now works as a lobbyist—it was inevitable that the day Banco Sabadell held another Shareholders' Meeting in the city of Valles that 'Isla.' It was the president of BBVA, Carlos Torres—if the takeover bid and the merger with Sabadell go through, the latter will disappear as an entity.
The anticipation surrounding Torres lasted until the scoreboard began to count down to the start of the event. Suddenly, Isla appeared on the inner steps of the Círculo, where he slowly walked down to reach the hall's stage. A short journey that was broadcast on a screen via the video camera following him. "It was the entrance of a movie star," comments a communications advisor to a senior Ibex executive.
Torres, seated in the second row, wasn't the only face from the selective club to embrace, or at least listen to, Salvador Illa. The coven of presidents and CEOs of companies, some of them listed, didn't go unnoticed: "I'm sure many calls were made," noted a former Catalan member of Congress. Although it's also true that a large number of the executives present are haunted by their proximity to the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). Antoni Llardén, president of Enagás; Mauricio Lucena, president of Aena; and Antoni Brufau, president of Repsol and with whom Isla has "a close relationship," business sources acknowledge, were also in this second row. "Only Marc Murtra is missing," jokes a communications director.
"Pere Aragonès would have paid to have a line like that in Madrid," noted one of the attendees. From early on, the press was attentive to which figures from the economic world were making an appearance, to the point that more than one person mistook Jaume Collboni, mayor of Barcelona, for Mauricio Lucena. In any case, Isla didn't just seek out the warmth of the executives with whom he maintains a good rapport: he was joined by councilors, Socialist ministers, as well as part of the PSOE's old guard, from Carlos Solchaga to Javier Solana.
Isla's agenda this Thursday in Madrid, however, continued outside the Círculo de Bellas Artes, albeit "privately," his team explained. Aside from a meeting with international media correspondents, Isla participated in a closed-door luncheon under the umbrella of the United States Embassy in Spain, which was attended by around twenty business leaders. Among the objectives is to charm them with the "security" that Catalonia offers. "We all know that money is cowardly," a Catalan businesswoman commented to Minister Alícia Romero upon leaving the conference, discussing the flight of companies in October 2017. After all, Illa's plan envisions mobilizing more than 18 billion euros in investments.
