"Languages are not there to divide": Ayuso reaffirms her boycott of Catalan at the regional summit.

BarcelonaNone of the men The PP supported the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in her boycott of Catalan and Basque. at the Conference of Presidents in BarcelonaBut this hasn't made the PP leader reconsider, and this Saturday she reaffirmed her decision to leave the room that held the top regional leaders when the co-official languages were spoken and not return until the interventions were again in Spanish. "Languages aren't there to divide us, they're there to communicate," she said. However, she endorsed their use in greetings, as the Galician and Balearic presidents did.

In an interview on the Cope radio station, Ayuso defended that she did what, personally, seemed "coherent" to her, following the threat she issued from Madrid, stating that if any president spoke in a language other than Spanish, she would leave the room. "Standing up and leaving, in politics, is a gesture and quite enough. [...] I don't know how to demonstrate my absolute disagreement if you don't leave," she stated. The Madrid leader has insisted on what she called the "earmuff maneuver" this Friday: according to her, allowing regional presidents to speak in the co-official languages is intended to make the rest feel "foreigners in their own home" and gives the impression that Spain is a plurinational state. A thesis she denies.

Isla, on Ayuso: "She'll do it."

Ayuso's snub particularly angered the Basque President, Imanol Pradales, who saw her stand up during her speech. The president of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, avoided a heated exchange with her, but did reply that Catalan is not a language for saying "good morning," but rather for expressing oneself "fully." Speaking to Onda Cero this Saturday, the president considered the gesture a "huge mistake" that "helps no one": "She will do it," he noted. Despite defending her position, Ayuso added that her gesture yesterday was not "against Catalonia or Catalan," but rather against "the use" of the "cultural wealth of all," referring to the co-official languages.

The clash with Mónica García

There has also been no rectification due to the clash with the Minister of Health, Mónica García, Ayuso's nemesis when she was leader of the opposition for Más Madrid in the Community Assembly. pandemic. The PP leader has justified herself: "I couldn't be a hypocrite and give him two kisses, I feel very bad. If this is institutional disloyalty... I'm sorry. What I'm not is an institutional hypocrite," she added. and the political enmity that both have dragged on since the pandemic, already taking into account the unique financing that the Socialists defend for Catalonia. Ayuso shows "nervousness" about the judicial proceedings regarding the management of the residences in which former high-ranking officials of her government are accused. Feijóo calls for people to take to the streets.

Aside from the controversy, Ayuso also took the opportunity to call for participation in the PP demonstration this Sunday against Pedro Sánchez and "the mafia that is running the nation," following the unanimous outcry from the PP presidents in Barcelona urging him to call elections. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijó, an alternative to the "most expensive, useless, and corrupt" government, also called for this. men of the PP to stage, also in the street, The political tension with the PSOE, which already prevented any kind of agreement at the Conference of PresidentsIn fact, Feijóo has maintained that the meeting in Barcelona was the "best example" that Pedro Sánchez's government "is no longer useful," despite the fact that it was the Popular Party that distanced itself from the agreement. to improve the financing of public housing that the central government put on the table. This attitude has been criticized by the Comuns, who believe that Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party was out to disrupt the summit. In statements to ACN, parliamentary spokesman David Cid accused the Popular Party of attempting a "soft coup."