The Diplomat
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has created a Spanish Language Office, under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport, which will be headed by the former Ciudadanos spokesperson in Valencia, Toni Cantó.
The new office was approved yesterday by the Governing Council of the Community of Madrid, with the aim of making Madrid the capital of Spanish in Europe.
Sources from the Community stressed that the measure was taken because “the Spanish language is a cultural, social and economic asset that we share with almost 600 million people around the world and that it has an extraordinary potential that the Community of Madrid is going to exploit”.
The objective,” they added, “is to make Madrid the Spanish language capital of Europe. Achieving this would have great benefits not only in the cultural and academic spheres, but also in the tourist, economic and business spheres.
Among the aims of the Spanish Language Office are “the promotion of the Community of Madrid as the European capital of Spanish, dialogue with institutions to promote the economic opportunities of Spanish and active collaboration with entities within the Community of Madrid that work to promote Spanish”.
Synergies will also be sought with international cultural entities to carry out actions to promote the value of Spanish, and reports and meetings will be organised to encourage debate on the potential of Spanish, locating the meeting of experts and opinion leaders in the Community of Madrid.
The head of the Office will be the actor Toni Cantó, who left Ciudadanos and supported the candidacy of Díaz Ayuso in the last elections held in the Community. According to the Transparency Portal of the Community of Madrid, his annual salary would be 75,084 euros.
Cantó’s appointment has provoked the reaction of the opposition parties in the Assembly, who have described the office as a “chiringuito” to reward the former Ciudadanos leader.
