When the Cercle d'Economia chose to place its annual meeting right after the municipal elections, they knew that politics would be one of the key topics of the conference. What they did not expect was that an unexpected advance of the general elections would upset the program. The first consequence is that President Pedro Sánchez will not close the conference on Wednesday and will be replaced by the First Vice-President and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño.
In the small groups of the W Hotel in Barcelona, where the meeting is taking place, members were expectant at the prospect of Sánchez delivering his first public conference there after the election was called. It won't be possible.
The president of the Circle, Jaume Guardiola, was working from the room to get an alternative to Sánchez. Although it is traditional in the Circle for the president of the central government to close the meetings, it is not unusual for a minister to do so.
On Wednesday, Calviño will deliver his speech after the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, takes the floor. In principle, Calviño was not expected to participate in the conference, although he has finally modified his agenda to be able to replace the president.
The new Board of Directors of the Circle had set itself the goal for this year's conference to reduce the number of politicians present. Despite this, the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, are scheduled to speak today. Sunday's municipal and regional elections already caused Aragonés not to open the conference, as is traditional. Tomorrow Wednesday, in addition to Feijóo and Calviño, the Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, will also deliver a conference.
Yesterday it was the turn of the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, who delivered the opening greeting. The politician once again recognized the triumph of Xavier Trias in the elections to the Barcelona Consistory and explained that until the constitution of the new city council she must attend to her institutional obligations as mayoress. He took advantage of his words to ask for the vote for left-wing parties in the July 23 elections. "As a left-wing woman, I think that all these challenges that exist must be done by left-wing governments," she said. "We need progressive governments", he added.
The mayor also thanked the "institutional loyalty" towards her shown by the Circle. "He has always shown an attitude very rooted in the city and a dialogical attitude", he said.
The high representative for the Foreign Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, framed the fact that there are general elections in Spain as normal and that they coincide with the start of Spain's six-month presidency of the Council of the EU on Thursday. "I don't think it's a problem," he said. And he gave as an example that the same thing happened in France a few months ago. On the suitability or not of taking this measure, Borrell recalled that the president is the only one authorized to take this decision, and if he has taken it "he will have reasons".
The president of the Circle recalled that the title of the conference, "Reactivate the future", will take them for three days to dissect the best practices to get the economy moving forward.
