This Wednesday night the mining dinner Cesco Week 2024, where President Gabriel Boric was present, as well as ministers Aurora Williams and Maisa Rojas. However, the head of Economy, Nicolás Grau, did not participate in this meetingbecause as revealed by the Ex Ante media, the Secretary of State was at a soccer game at that time.
The Secretary of State used his X account, to refer to what happenedwhere he indicated that the time of the game did not coincide with that of the mining dinner.
“There is a note stating that I didn’t give importance to CescoWeek. It isn’t true. 1. I attended the inauguration of CW on Monday 2. Dinner left at 6:30 and I arrived at Stgo at 7:15 from Congress (Huachipato) 3. I arrived home to fulfill duties with my children (game was 9pm, they were already sleeping),” said Grau on the social network.
From the Ministry of Economy, they delved into the topic and they explained that Nicolás Grau had excused himself from attending the dinner last week.
“Last Friday he excused himself from participating in the dinner, which was quoted at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. At 8:40 p.m. he went to the game, summoned at 9:00 p.m. The President, Minister Williams and Minister Rojas attended the dinner,” the ministry said in a statement.
And he added that “Minister Grau attended on Monday to the inauguration of Cesco Week, in which context the start of the RFI process of the national lithium strategy was announced at a press conference. After participating in a special session for Huachipato in the Senate during yesterday’s dayr, arrived in Santiago at 7:15 p.m. to fulfill his family duties.”
From Renovación Nacional, a group of deputies questioned the minister after being absent from the mining dinner.
“These actions raise questions about your suitability to lead important economic reforms in Chile. It is not possible for the holder of such an important portfolio for the country to prioritize a football game over such an important event for mining,” said Andrés Celis.
While Sofía Cid maintained that “it is evident after two years that the bad economic projections For Chile they do not complicate the Government. What’s more, they don’t care that activity doesn’t rebound. It shouldn’t attract attention at this point.”.
The UDI deputies, Marco Antonio Sulantay and Marlene Pérez They went further and asked President Boric to evaluate the minister’s continuity.
“Remove, in the shortest possible time, Minister Nicolás Grau, both due to his complete inability to improve the economy of our country, as well as for the absolute disinterest that has been demonstrated in a meeting of this nature,” they said in a joint statement.
