The Diplomat. 03/07/2017
Sources of the Foreign Ministry have assured The Diplomat that the information about the possible closure of the Spanish Consulate General in Genoa, something that had raised the alarm in the Spanish Residents Council (CRE in its Spanish acronym) in this Italian city, is not true.
At the beginning of June, the website of the CRE affirmed that it had received the “confirmation” of Spain’s Ambassador to Italy, Jesús Manuel Gracia, and the director general of Spaniards Abroad and Consular and Migration Affairs “of the intention of the Foreign Ministry to close the Spanish Consulate General in Genoa” for budgetary reasons.
For that reason, the CRE expressed its discontent about the fact that no representatives of the institutions had contacted the CRE to discuss the consequences of closing regarding the consular assistance or the conditions in which the workers of the Consulate would be left.
The Consulate’s employees, according to the same source, had communicated the CRE (a consulting and advisory institution recognized by the Spanish law to defend the interests of the Spanish community) that the decree of closure could be approved between June and July this year. Sources of the Foreign Ministry consulted by The Diplomat have affirmed that there is no record of any intention of the Government to close the Consulate.
The CRE, has launched a campaign, through the platform of online petitions Change.org, to collect signatures against the closure of the Consulate, “an exemplary consular office for its efficiency and its human treatment, as those who have to turn to it know”. As of today, the petition has already achieved “its objective” of collecting more than 2,000 signatures, according to the organizers.