The Diplomat
The PP accuses the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela, of travelling to Cuba with the aim of attracting votes for the PSOE, after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has disassociated itself from this trip, stating that she travelled to the island in her capacity as a socialist leader and not as an envoy of the Government.
Cancela, who is also federal secretary of PSOE Exterior, travelled from Mexico to Cuba last December and in Havana met with Spaniards who have emigrated there to discuss the reform of voting conditions for voters living abroad and measures to facilitate access to Spanish nationality.
As this trip took place on the eve of an election year in Spain, with regional elections in May and general elections in December, the PP asked the Congress of Deputies why the State Secretary went to Cuba, who accompanied her and who paid for her travel expenses.
In its reply, to which Europa Press had access, the Foreign Affairs Ministry disassociates itself from the trip, assuring that Cancela went to Cuba “in her capacity as federal secretary of PSOE Exterior”. And it assures that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is unaware of the details of the trip, as it was not a visit in the exercise of her public functions as State Secretary for International Cooperation”. For this reason,” he adds, “there is no record of the cost of the tickets, the number of accompanying persons or the cost of accommodation”.
The PP has already demanded explanations from Minister José Manuel Albares for allowing his State Secretary for Cooperation to be in charge of the PSOE’s foreign campaign with a view to the regional and municipal elections in May. “International cooperation is state policy and the post cannot be used to attract votes for a party,” Pablo Hispán, one of the spokespersons for Foreign Affairs in the Popular Group, told Europa Press.
In his opinion, the two tasks should not be compatible: either she is State Secretary in Foreign Ministry or she is responsible for the party’s foreign vote. “It is a scandal. It’s scandalous,” she said. “It’s unacceptable that the person who travels with funds from the Cooperation funds, with the other hand is dedicated to collecting votes for the PSOE. It is not acceptable.
According to Hispán, international cooperation is “state policy” and the person responsible for it should be “one hundred percent” dedicated to this task and not trying to “collect votes” for the PSOE.
The deputy affirms that the trip to Cuba meant crossing a red line, because – he stresses – these elections are of special importance given that the “voto rogado”, which restricted participation from abroad, will no longer be applied and that the extension of voters derived from the measures to facilitate the granting of Spanish nationality by virtue of the Law of Democratic Memory will also be reflected in the census.
