The political tension between the PP and PSOE spills over into the summit of presidents and makes any agreement impossible.

BarcelonaThe Spanish government wanted the Conference of Presidents to serve to offer an image of institutional normality in the midst of a war with the PP over the alleged corruption cases affecting the PSOE and its pacts with the independence movement. If there was any chance of the executive getting its way, it was, first, the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who blew it up when she left the summit hall when people started speaking in Catalan and Basque. And, second, the rest of men Popular Party, which has not accepted any agreement and has demanded early elections. What happened this Friday in Barcelona shows that the political tension has spread to the institutional relationship between the two parties, which is currently broken.

Ayuso, however, has made good on her threat while the rest of the men of the PP remained in their seats (even with a brief greeting in Galician from the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, and one in Catalan from the Balearic Marga Prohens). There has been no common front of the PP against the use of the co-official languages, but there has been in the offensive against Pedro Sánchez, against whom Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party has called a large demonstration on Sunday. Two days before this meeting, the Popular Party (PP) asked him en masse to call elections, while the head of the executive urged them to put aside the "tension" and warned them that he plans to exhaust the governing legislature until 2027. The Conference ended without an agreement, not even on housing, as Moncloa had wanted.

Ayuso's snub was not even the first outburst of the morning: earlier, He had already confronted the Minister of Health, Mónica García, for those who died in nursing homes during the pandemic, when the former leader of the Madrid opposition went to give her two kisses. Even outside the PP regions with their own languages, Ayuso's gesture of leaving the room until Spanish was spoken again hasn't garnered sympathy. "I'm not an Ayuso expert," said the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, when asked about the episode. The Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, has put his finger on the sore spot, emphasizing that the Madrid woman has been left standing alone. "If someone has come to break up the government of Spain, what they have ended up doing is causing the PP presidents to break up with each other," he warned.

In any case, the Madrid president's tantrum has provided the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, with an opportunity to boast about the use of Catalan at the Conference, the first to be held in Barcelona. "Understanding this is understanding Spain," said Illa, who spoke entirely in Catalan to his colleagues. Before entering the meeting, the president had appealed for common sense to explore solutions among all the regions to shared challenges, such as housing, immigration management, and financial reform. This appeal fell on deaf ears because, as happened at the last Conference of Presidents in Santander, the meeting ended without any agreement between the autonomous regions.

Isla supports Sánchez

Although, off the record, several presidents deny that the Conference was particularly tense, men The PP's party members agreed in calling the meeting useless. Even Emiliano García-Page, from La Mancha, has once again expressed his support for bringing forward elections, and the Basque President, Imanol Pradales, has questioned whether the Basque Country should remain in these multilateral forums. Sources present at the meeting explained that Pradales felt particularly offended when Ayuso stood up and he began speaking in Basque. From the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo complained about the "feeling of loneliness" he feels in the archipelago in the face of the massive arrival of immigrants. In the case of Page, Sánchez interrupted him when he tried to question the pacts with Junts.

As usual, Salvador Illa Sánchez did find unwavering support. In a press conference, the Catalan president backed him to see out his term and thanked him for his "tenacity" at a time when, he said, Spain needs "stability." Despite the lack of agreements, Isla considered it "useful" to have been able to address initiatives with the other regional presidents, for example, regarding housing, with Sánchez's proposal to triple the resources of the state plan provided that the autonomous regions contribute 40% of the resources and protect the public housing stock. Only Catalonia, Asturias, Navarre, the Canary Islands, and the Basque Country have accepted the deal, and now the Spanish government will work "bilaterally" to finalize the proposal. The only thing that was unanimously approved was the minutes of the session, which is also a novelty of this Conference. Until now, they had not been raised.

The PP's challenge this week

The possibility of a grand pact within the Conference of Presidents had already seemed impossible even before the meeting. Since its convening, the PP's strategy has been to dynamite the meeting to further weaken Pedro Sánchez. after the outbreak of the Leire case, which adds to others such as the Koldo plot or the Begoña Gómez case. He already did so by threatening to leave Sánchez (and the king) in Barcelona if the Spanish government did not include issues such as financing, the massive blackout, or the justice reforms that the Moncloa wants to promote on the agenda.

The executive saved the call by giving in to the demands of the PP and incorporating them into the agenda of topics to be discussed at the meeting, which had 16 pointsOne of them has been financing: with Ayuso at the helm, the PP has attacked the unique model that the PSC and ERC have agreed on for Catalonia, which should be finalized before June 30, to comply with the investiture calendar agreement. Illa has maintained that Catalonia does not want "any privileges," but has not detailed the proposal his executive continues to work on - the Generalitat considers this an issue that the Government is addressing bilaterally with the State. "Today was not about that; that has its space. When the time is right, we will address it," he added.