King Felipe presides meeting with autonomic leaders to discuss economic recovery

On Friday, King Felipe of Spain travelled to Salamanca to preside over a meeting with regional presidents and leaders.

The conference was instituted in 2004 and has gathered regularly ever since, with the last in-person meeting having been on the 31st of July 2020 to discuss a common strategy to tackle the recovery after the country had spent months in lockdown at the time. 

The meeting saw King Felipe meeting with leaders from all 17 Autonomic Communities (Andalucía, Aragón, Principality of Asturias, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid Community, Murcia Region, Forum Community of Navarra, Basque Country) and the two Autonomic Cities of Ceuta and Melilla. 

The conference is the highest organism of cooperation between the head of state and the various communities and has held 17 meetings online in only the span of time of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Casa Real has not discussed the contents of the meeting, but multiple media outlets say that the most important topic debated during the conference is the recovery of the country from the economic stagnation brought upon by the prolonged shutdown and the distribution of economic resources from the European economic recovery plan and of vaccine doses. 

This was presumably the last engagement the royals undertook before their annual holiday in Palma de Mallorca, where King Felipe, Queen Letizia and their daughters are supposed to arrive during the weekend. 

On Monday, King Felipe is supposed to take part in the MAPFRE sailing cup, an annual competition that has been held in the waters of the island since 1982, when King Juan Carlos moved it there to continue to take part in it when Palma de Mallorca was chosen as the Royal Family’s summer residence.