The Government of Pedro Sánchez is trying to make use of all the resources it has to use the controversial comment by Mariano Rajoy about the French players as a wear-down weapon against the Popular Party. In this strategy, the president of the Generalitat and leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has urgently called a meeting with the French consul in Barcelona, Azar Agah-Ducroc, whom he will receive at the Palau.
Sources from the Catalan Government indicate that the meeting is due to the French national holiday on July 14, but also, and especially, because of Rajoy’s comment in which he denied the French status to the players of the national team for being, mostly, of black race.
The meeting, which was not scheduled on the president’s agenda, took place at 12:00 hours, after the weekly meeting of the Consell Executiu, and occurred just hours before the French and Spanish teams play tonight the World Cup semifinal. Illa sought a symbolic image to join the Government’s offensive against the current leadership of the PP for Rajoy’s phrase in one of his articles in El Debate, in which he said that France was a great football team but “without French players.” This statement, for which the PSOE wants to hold Alberto Núñez Feijóo politically responsible, has caused deep discomfort in the French Government and unanimous rejection, as even Le Pen’s party has called it unfortunate and out of place.
However, the French consul has preferred to keep a low profile and at the end of the meeting Agah-Ducroc said in statements to journalists that, despite not hiding the “discontent” with Rajoy’s comment, she did not want to enter into new “controversies,” since she recalled that the French and Spanish governments have already spoken on the matter.
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The consul also said she is “impatiently” awaiting the ratification of the Friendship Treaty between Spain and France, after the Senate, in which the PP has a majority, has chosen to refer it to the Constitutional Court.
Before the meeting at Palau, President Illa wanted to position himself through the social network X showing his support for the statements of Laminen Yamal in which he affirms that Spain and France are models of integration. “Well said and well played. Good luck tonight,” wrote the leader of the Catalan socialists.
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