"Do you want to kiss a murderer?": Ayuso strains the Conference of Presidents

BarcelonaTensions were high between the People's Party (PP) and the Spanish government during the Conference of Presidents, held this Friday at the Palau de Pedralbes in Barcelona. The president of the Madrid government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the Minister of Health, Mónica García, clashed over the management of nursing homes immediately after the summit began, during the official greeting. The clash lasted several seconds, until a protocol officer separated them. As reported by the parties involved, the confrontation between the two occurred when García went to give her two kisses, and Ayuso refused to shake her hand. "Do you still want to kiss a murderer?" the PP leader reportedly asked.

Ayuso has accused the Minister of Health of calling her a "murderer" after Más Madrid MP Diana Paredes stated yesterday that during the first wave of the coronavirus, "a macabre plan was designed that would condemn 7,291 elderly people to die." However, García reportedly assured Ayuso that she never called her a "murderer." According to sources close to the minister, during the greeting, Ayuso was apparently especially "nervous, restless, and aggressive." Later, on X, the minister herself described Ayuso's attitude as "disproportionate" and "revealing." "I have never called her a 'murderer.' It only shows that she is nervous about the accusations and increasingly cornered by the investigation into the 7,291 elderly people abandoned in Madrid's nursing homes," García said.

Escape to the corridors

Ayuso's show, however, hasn't ended there. The Madrid president made good on her threat and left the room while Basque and Catalan were being spoken. She left when the Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, was speaking. Ayuso remained outside the room during Salvador Illa's speech, entirely in Catalan, and re-entered when the Galician president, Alfonso Rueda, began speaking. He began in Galician, defending Galicia's right to have its own language, but continued in Spanish so that he could be understood "without intermediaries." "[Isabel Díaz Ayuso] already warned that she would not participate if she had to listen to them [the regional presidents] with earmuffs," say sources from the Madrid government.

It should be remembered that, this Thursday The Popular Party leader had said that she would "leave" the Conference if it was spoken in any language other than "Spanish.", after Pedro Sánchez's government allowed the presidents, for the first time, to use the co-official languages. Her words suggested she would abandon the summit, but she ultimately only left the meeting temporarily. Ayuso's symbolic protest was not echoed by any other regional president from the People's Party (PP), despite the Basque government expressing displeasure after several regional presidents failed to use the translation system during their speeches.