The president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, has warned of the possible consequences for the growth of the Spanish economy if the conflict in the Middle East prolongs, and has stressed that certain fiscal and, above all, labor initiatives that are being put on the table are generating even more “interference” and “insecurity” in a context already marked by the global crisis derived from the war tension in the region.
Garamendi has expressed himself in these terms during his intervention at the III Economic Forum of The Objective, where he has criticized that, “with what is happening,” the latest “interference” from the Government is related to the social dialogue table convened by the Ministry of Labor for this afternoon on democracy in companies, a meeting which the CEOE has decided not to attend.
Trade unionism in the ECB
At this point, he has defended the internal functioning of the companies by pointing out that “I believe that companies are more than democratic and there is the shareholders' meeting, etc. You haven't found out, it's that whoever owns a bar will have to give a part of the bar to their worker. What you haven't found out is that companies with more than 250 workers will have to distribute 10% of the shares among the workers”.
The business leader has also recalled that a large number of Spanish firms operate as multinationals and obtain most of their income and profits abroad. “I say this because it also seems that some want to take advantage of the work of others,” he pointed out, in reference to the proposals that affect the distribution of business ownership.
Garamendi has also focused on the role that is intended to be granted to trade union organizations in the corporate governance of companies. “But what's more, the unions are going to have 50% of the board of directors. The European Central Bank is going to have a problem when it has to examine our dear trade unionists to see if they have the capacity or not to be directors of large banking multinationals or Spanish banks,” he pointed out.
For the president of the employers' association, it is "madness" to propose this type of initiative, even if they do not succeed, because the mere fact of debating them already poses "a problem" for the arrival of foreign investment in Spain. In his opinion, "Why? Because it violates private property and makes a country unreliable," he remarked, demanding "institutional loyalty" and a grand State Pact, especially among the "parties called to govern," in allusion to PP and PSOE, on the issues under discussion.
"The pre-su-what?"
In parallel, Garamendi has drawn attention to the economic risks derived from a possible extension in time of the crisis in Iran, which could translate into a strong rebound in inflation and, consequently, into a lower expansion of the Spanish Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“If by chance, God forbid, inflation skyrockets, GDP will be lowered, we will have less growth and, nevertheless, we are going to raise the pensions according to inflation. Be careful, because when things are going well, it can be endured,” he stated, insisting that this type of imbalance should be the subject of debate in the next public accounts.
In this regard, the president of the CEOE has remarked that these issues would have to be addressed in the future General State Budgets, in case they are approved. He recalled that “In the State we have been three years without Budgets, and what's more, I think we are going to end up asking some deputy when the legislature passes, hey, what about the Budgets? And he's going to say, the bud-gets-what? Because nobody even knows what it is”, ironizing about the prolonged absence of new public accounts.