Toni Cantó’s phantom agenda: meetings with no interlocutor or clear content

The official agenda of Toni Cantó it has gone from being almost empty to having hardly any gaps. During his first two months at the helm of the Spanish Office of the Community of Madrid, the ex-leader of Citizens who jumped to the PP hardly had appointments. From the end of September, on the other hand, its activity began to be frantic. Last Friday, for example, he met with the Golf Course Association, among others. It is an encounter that may cause some surprise, but at least it is concrete. Have a clear interlocutor. Many of his other official quotes, on the other hand, lack a counterpart, within a phantom agenda that Cantó’s team is unable to explain.

Week from October 18 to 24. The director of the Office of Spanish, who charges 75,000 euros a year for being in charge of an organization whose functions remain unclear and has been crossed out by the opposition of “chiringuito”, held a meeting on Monday at 11 a.m. on “Public diplomacy and internationalization” according to him community transparency portal. With who? It is not known. Where? Either. How long did it last? The same.

Cantó met in those days with representatives of the company Warner Music, the Spanish Federation of Schools of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FEDELE) and the philologist Manuel Seco. But he also held seven other opaque meetings: “meeting with a translator & rdquor ;,“ Spanish and tourism meeting & rdquor ;, “La Zarzuela hippodrome project meeting & rdquor ;,“ Spanish meeting for foreigners & rdquor ;, “Spanish school meeting & rdquor ;,“ neighborhood project meeting of the Letters & rdquor ;, “Meeting collaboration possibilities & rdquor ;, as it appears on your schedule.

There are many more similar cases, up to 17 in total. On September 27 he kept three vague appointments: one to “identify an opportunity to attract Spanish students from India & rdquor ;, another for“ Hispanic profiling projects & rdquor; and a last one on the “educational internationalization of the Community of Madrid & rdquor ;. The following day, two, identified as, again, “educational internationalization of the Community of Madrid & rdquor; and “present a Spanish translation of Buddhist texts & rdquor ;. And the other, two of the same type. But maybe the most striking of all is one that took place on October 4, identified simply as “reunion & rdquor ;.

It’s about a exclusive behavior de Cantó: the rest of the senior officials of the Community of Madrid clearly identify in the transparency portal who they are meeting with. On the actor’s team, however, refuse to give explanations about these encounters. Immersed as he is in his continuous meetings, he sang, they point out, “No time & rdquor; to clarify it. The word ‘team’, in any case, must be used with many reservations to refer to the former leader of Cs in the Valencian Community. “The chiringuito is me. There is no other structure than I & rdquor ;, he said in early July, when he was named by Isabel Diaz Ayuso director of the Spanish Office. You are quite right. The organism has in theory two attached officials, but in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism they explain that for the moment none has joined the orders of Cantó. Neither is there forecast of when they will.

Contradictory versions

At the beginning, when he assumed the position of director of the Office of Spanish, after the Constitutional Court ruled that he could not be part of the PP lists at Madrid elections last May 4 as there was no registered in the community well in advance, Cantó left his agenda almost deserted, not complying with the section of the transparency law that obliges him to publicize all his meetings. “Sorry,” he said later. I thought you only had to notify external & rdquor ;. Since then, the actor’s attitude has been the opposite, but the change has not served to specify what you do the Spanish Office.

Ayuso pointed out at first that the organization intended to “make Madrid the capital of spanish in Europe & rdquor ;, an unambitious goal, considering that it competes with Rome, Prague or Stockholm. Later, in July, the deputy Angel Ramos, of the PP, assured that its purpose was “to defend the Spanish & rdquor ;. But only four days later, the Minister of Culture, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, another former Citizen, made it clear that this was not what was sought. “The Office was not born with the will to defend Spanish, because almost 600 million people who speak it defend it every day, but to use Spanish as a tool for the culture and progress of Madrid & rdquor ;, he explained.

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During his appearance at the Madrid Assembly, on October 6, Cantó himself explained that between “80% and 90% & rdquor; The work of the Spanish Office had to do with the “Educational tourism & rdquor ;. The actor, who before being a soldier in Ciudadanos was UPyD deputy, He also took advantage of the summons to accuse Pedro Sanchez of “plagiarize & rdquor; his project, after the Prime Minister announced an initiative to take advantage of the economic potential of the language, and to compare with Mahatma Gandhi. “I remember some words from Gandhi that are relevant: first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you and then you win. And I would add: then they copy you and then you win, “he said.

For now, the entity has organized a festival, called de la Hispanidad, which was held in early October. Cantó is already preparing next year’s one. This Thursday, in an appointment that does specify his agenda, he meets with the Syndicate of Lyric Artists.