Horacio Rodríguez Larreta closes his European tour with meetings with leaders of the Popular Party

The head of government of the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, will conclude this Wednesday a brief tour that he undertook in Europe with a couple of high-level political meetings with officials of the People's Party and also with directors of entities, companies and chambers linked to tourism.

Rodríguez Larreta made this trip to establish international contacts that will better position him thinking about being a candidate for Together for Change in 2023. He will first meet with his partner from Madrid, Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida, he will later sign a memorandum of understanding with the Spanish Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, so that Spanish students can travel to Buenos Aires and will establish an agreement with Iberia for the promotion of tourist trips.

In the afternoon he will be received by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, one of the 17 autonomous communities that Spain has. According to those close to the head of government of Buenos Aires, one of the main issues they will address is that of economic reactivation and tourism, although the political situation of both countries and the war in Ukraine and its implications as well

Díaz Ayuso, who is 43 years old and in 2021 won an absolute majority in the communal elections, spent a very politically agitated month of February after accusations involving a businessman friend of Tomás, his older brother, who was accused of irregular buying of masks during the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic in April 2020 for 1.5 million euros.

Because of these allegations, Díaz Ayuso broke off his relationship with the leader of the Popular Party, Pablo Casado, whom he accused of espionage actions and the creation of a plan against him to damage his image. The center-right Popular Party at the national level is the main opposition political force (the Spanish Socialist Party governs with Pedro Sánchez at the head) and often in Madrid due to the parliamentary system it needs the votes of other forces such as Vox - from the extreme right - to obtain support for its initiatives or projects.

Casado had toured several countries in South America in December 2021 and in Buenos Aires he met with Larreta.

This Tuesday 22nd, on his first day in Spanish territory, the head of government of Buenos Aires met with representatives of Spanish companies with interests in Latin America that make up the Ibero-American Business Foundation. There, Rodríguez Larreta presented a vision of the economic situation in Argentina and the investment opportunities that arise in strategic sectors of the City.

On the first stop of this European tour, Rodríguez Larreta visited the German cities of Hanover and Berlin. There she held meetings related to the promotion of the City of Buenos Aires, was interested in learning about German educational experience and met with the mayor of the German capital, Franziska Giffey, the first woman mayor of Berlin, and who served as federal minister for the Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth at the fourth cabinet of former prime minister, Angela Merkel.

On its first European scale, it announced that in March next year the city of Buenos Aires will develop “Industrial Transformation Argentina” (ITA), the South American version of the largest industrial fair in the world, called Hannover Messe, with the aim of implementing an Industry 4.0 agenda in Argentina and the Southern Cone.

Later, in Berlin, he became interested in the functioning of the dual education system in Germany, which combines theoretical training with professional practices, an idea that the Buenos Aires government wants to develop in secondary schools since this year. Mayor Giffey told her about the success of this methodology and the mayors talked about the Go Europe initiative, which promotes dual vocational students from Berlin to hold an exchange in Buenos Aires. Giffey was also invited to participate in the C40 World Summit of Mayors, which will take place from 19 to 21 October in Buenos Aires, where issues related to climate change will be discussed.

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