The ‘Govern’ shakes Ayuso for pretending to host the Mobile World Congress

The will of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to fight for the Mobile World Congress, which hosts Barcelona since 2006 and with a contract until 2023, has raised blisters in Catalonia. This Friday, the Minister of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Generalitat, Àngels Chacón, accused Ayuso of “bad faith, the intention to harm us, or ignorance” in his proposal.

“The Mobile World Congress is much more than four days of congress,” he said, arguing that Barcelona and Catalonia offer the event much more, as a local ecosystem of startups and technology companies; infrastructures such as the supercomputer and the synchrotron, and events such as the congress for entrepreneurs parallel to the MWC called 4YFN. “This system cannot be cut and stuck to free will,” he said, referring to a job developed over years.

Ayuso's statements on Thursday also continued this Friday causing reactions in the Catalan capital, and BCN Canvi, the municipal group led by former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, announced that he will present a proposal for the Barcelona City Council to make an institutional declaration of Support to continue to host the MWC beyond 2023, to which it wants to join the municipalities of the metropolitan area, the Diputación de Barcelona, ​​the Generalitat and the Spanish Government. He also asks that, in said statement, the Barcelona City Council thank the organizers of the mobile technology congress – the international GSMA association – for their commitment to the city.

Also, BCN Canvi demanded that the municipal government disseminate the benefits that the MWC brings to the city and “guarantee the solution to problems and actions that may affect mobility and security” during its celebration. And is that transport strikes have tarnished several editions of the congress, and taxi drivers are threatening to strike at this year's appointment, scheduled for late February, if the Generalitat does not reinforce the measures so that car rental companies with Driver – basically Cabify today – comply with Catalan regulations that prevent them from traveling in search of passengers, among other requirements.