In the middle of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated from September 15 to October 15 in the US, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, began an institutional trip this Monday in New York that will also take her to Washington, ready to put a pike in Flanders, its own as a politician in permanent campaign, but also that of Hispanity and the common legacy on both sides of the Atlantic. Boasting of the “defense of real history and of one of the most important moments in history”, and against “the dangerous current of communism through indigenism that is an attack on Spain”, Ayuso cried out against populist policies, with much predicament in Latin America, he said; policies that fuel hatred and “call the masses to revolution.”
The triple objective of her trip, which the president announced this Sunday at a press conference —an economic, political and cultural program—, became an ideological banner this Monday “against the revision of history (…) to tell the truth, even if the bad guys win, ”Díaz Ayuso said in an improvised parliament at the headquarters of the Hispanic Society in New York, where she was interviewed by the newspaper. The Wall Street Journal.
The visit, which was planned to be followed by a working lunch with investment funds such as Blackrock or Torino Capital and an interview with the tycoon and former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, was on the agenda provided to the press as a “visit to the Hispanic Society and meeting with its representatives ”. It was not exactly like that – during the interview with the newspaper, the patrons of the foundation waited for her outside, having a coffee – but this did not prevent Ayuso from starring in the visit with her usual ease despite improvisation: the supposedly formal meeting with him. patronato ended up being a group of a couple of minutes in the Sorolla room of the institution, after a quick tour of the art gallery.
Closed due to the pandemic and due to rehabilitation works, the venerable manor house in Manhattan was the pulpit for the Madrid president to present her … American program. “My trip has three objectives: one economic and specifically the management of the pandemic in the Community of Madrid, from a liberal point of view that has marked the agenda of Spain a bit; another politician, because the Community Government is a government that loves the United States; Whatever they say in Spain, we appreciate their contribution to peace for decades because when the United States is stronger, we are all, ”explained Díaz Ayuso in that improvised speech, standing and before a dozen employers and leaders of the Hispanic Society. The third objective, the cultural one, is at the antipodes of the intellectual and political debate underway in the United States, deeply rooted in the classrooms and in the elites, and which for the president represents an attempt to rewrite history by movements As the woke (wake up), with the demolition of symbols and statues.
What do you think, for example, of the elimination of Columbus Day by the New York Department of Education, which has replaced it with the Day of Indigenous Peoples? “Well, it seems fatal to me,” he replied, “and it is good for me to know because I will say it at my meeting with the Hispanic caucus in Washington” (another of his scheduled visits). Ayuso finished his defense of Hispanity by paraphrasing Lorca: “To know Spain you have to know America.”
Not a reference – for the moment – on the possible subsequent objectives of this trip, that is, the alleged national projection and the political yield of cosmopolitanism before the PP convention. Ayuso wants to take advantage of the Hispanic flag “to attract talent”, that of university students, businessmen and creators of the audiovisual industry in Spanish, both music and television, to whom the Community of Madrid will offer as a great set full of advantage.
Recover investments
The low taxation of the region, stressed the president, favors investment, in “a pole of economic attraction for companies and projects.” Almost moved by singing about the advantages of the community, Díaz Ayuso cited the infrastructures and services “such as first-rate healthcare”, with a brand new hospital “next to the airport”, referring to the Isabel Zendal inaugurated during the pandemic.
In the press conference on Sunday, Ayuso showed his intention to recover, thanks in part to this visit, the level of North American investments, which in just three years – and through a pandemic – have gone from an estimate of 1,700 million euros to 324 million. To do this, it will remind its interlocutors that Madrid is the Spanish region with the highest GDP, contributing 20% at the national level or concentrating 70% of foreign investment.
At the end of her improvised speech at the Hispanic Society, the popular leader announced that, starting next week, Madrid will dedicate two weeks to celebrating Hispanism, “with various cultural events in which gastronomy will also have a place.” He did it in a city that has almost the same number of Spanish speakers as the supposed capital of Spanish in the world, Madrid, in a country where Spanish progresses at a forced marches.
“The political growth of my project has surprised investors”
At a luncheon with representatives of a dozen investment funds, Isabel Díaz Ayuso defended a strong idea: that investing in Madrid is doing it with quality of life. Leaving the restaurant in Manhattan where he met with the financial sector, Ayuso glossed the benefits of the community “in education, health, transportation.” He also advanced ideas to promote foreign investment: in addition to the advantages of a tax system that facilitates entrepreneurship, such as the one that Madrid offers, he stressed, it would be desirable “an investor visa” to streamline procedures. “I believe that the fiscal policy that we have defended in our region is the one that we should continue to insist that it be applied at the state level because these investors, the majority, do not understand only regions, they understand countries”, and that of now in Spain the they see it as “a direct brake” on their entrepreneurship. Ayuso presented to investors projects such as “Madrid Nuevo Norte, the great urban development; the Palace of Justice or the Canal de Isabel II, to reinforce the supply network ”. “60% of the large multinationals are in Madrid, as well as 75% of foreign investment,” he stressed, “because” Madrid is a very attractive space of freedom and projects a lot of energy, that is the image that my interlocutors had of the community”.
He once again defended his management of the pandemic, “with the creation of two public hospitals so as not to have to close, and thus be able to opt only for perimeter closures. They have been surprised by such a clear policy, in defense of the economy and health at the same time, putting the person at the center of everything ”. Investors were also surprised by “the political growth of my project,” he said, referring to the results it obtained in the May elections. Asked about the past entry of investment funds (vulture funds) in sectors such as real estate, Díaz Ayuso replied laconically: “I must look forward, not to the past.” And as a culmination, he once again defended the legacy of Hispanity despite the contrary currents in vogue in the US. “If that wrong version [de la historia] We did not correct it, how is the investment going to get to Spain? ”.
Ayuso also remembered the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and described the proposal to decentralize institutions to repair the depopulation of empty Spain as a “direct attack” on Madrid. “It is, again, a frontal and direct attack against Madrid and, of course, we are going to do everything in our power to prevent it.”
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