The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has canceled his attendance at the European Council that will begin this Thursday in Brussels, due to the death of his father-in-law, according to the State Secretary for Communication (SEC).
The Stadium Secretariat explained that “the decision has already been officially communicated to the community authorities” and that Sánchez “has delegated the vote, as established by the European mechanisms, to the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, for the agreements that will be adopted in this European Council.
From Moncloa, they indicate that Sánchez wishes to be with his family at this time and assure that the interests and vision of Spain will not be diminished, because the absence of a leader is a circumstance that has occurred on previous occasions.
The summit of European leaders that begins on Thursday will try to ratify the election of the new senior officials of the European Union – the so-called top jobs – who will predictably elect the German Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen for a new period at the head of the European Commission and they will appoint the socialist and former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa as president of the European Council; and the Estonian liberal and until now Prime Minister of her country Kaja Kallas as High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security.
In addition to this issue, the Council plans to address the Union’s strategic agenda and other issues that, according to community sources, arrive in Brussels quite worked over and, consequently, are not expected to be the subject of debate. As they explain, of the dozen topics that are on the agenda, ten of them are practically closed.
