Garamendi set another tone before the Government

Opinions are hostile, even within the business community. “Garamendi was too indifferent to the Government in his first four years. Let’s see what he has to offer now,” commented a former CEOE vice president at a Christmas celebration in Madrid. De Garamendi also criticized his salary, which is around 350,000 euros per year between fixed and variable; although the organization has defended him by dedicating himself full-time to the presidency.

Its critics say the 14 deals with Moncloa and the unions of a confederation that represents 3.5 million companies and the self-employed are too much of concessions. In the end, the critical sector failed to achieve its goal. Garamendi was re-elected as CEOE president in November with 534 votes against his opponent’s 87. Virginia Guinda. It is representative of the employers’ association of the paper and cardboard industry. He was blessed to meet Garamendi, president of the Catalan employers’ association Foment del Treball. Josep Sanchez Llibremember of the family business canned dani and ex-politician of the extinct CiU.

Statements don’t lie. During these weeks, Garamendi intensified his views against the latest decisions and projects that Moncloa has put forward. Either by Yolanda Díaz, vice presidents in labor (salaries) and Teresa Ribera in energy (taxes), as in the pension and contributions reforms that minister José Luis Escrivá sought to develop. The honeymoon that could have existed during the pandemic is over. Garamendi is already praising the PP’s new leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, despite having an “extraordinary relationship” with lehendakari. Inigo UrkulluEuskal describes him as “a very moderate person” in an interview with Telebista.

Garamendi is the fifth chairman of CEOE, a businessman founded under Foment’s leadership in 1977. Carlos Ferrer Salat as the first president. The CEOE’s relationship with governments is very unstable. Former Minister of Education and Science, in the ‘Business and Politics in Democracy’ report, Mercedes Cabrera Calvo Sotelo From 2006 to 2009, it stresses the business organization’s “full openness to dialogue and constructive cooperation” with the first PSOE government that emerged after the 28 October 1982 elections. Minister of Economy Michael Boyer and Ferrer Salat talked for five hours. This is next to the banker Emilio bootyPresident of the Spanish Banks Association (AEB) Raphael Termesand the head of the Círculo de Empresarios, Santiago FoncillasHe established fluid relations with his government. Philip Gonzalez this contrasted with the collapsing tension with the UCD governments.

Ferrer Salat, who started to participate in the race towards the Olympic Games in Barcelona, ​​was replaced by his general secretary. Jose Maria Cuevaswho will represent businessmen for 23 years after being re-elected seven times. After breaking his relationship with the socialist government from 1992, a technocrat at the service of businessmen, a collector of the Board of Directors and good public relations, he strongly embraced the rise to power of José María Aznar’s PP in 1996 and fought without many. Complications of the first phase of the Zapatero government. changed in 2007 Gerardo Diaz-Ferran (travel marsans, Argentina airlines, Spanish) who resigned and went to jail without facing justice. his backup Juan RosellComing from Foment, he spent eight years having to manage the economic crisis and deal with the Catalan independence process. Committed to family businesses, he withdrew from the presidential struggle. barcelona in 2021.

With Rosell—re-elected president in 2014 with a narrow 33-vote victory over Garamendi—the CEOE Statutes (article 18.4) stipulated that the presidential term should not last more than eight years. Over the next four years, in addition to setting the tone of job interviews, Garamendi will have another goal: to start considering a replacement. Apart from the 11 vice presidents, two more names stand out in the organization: fatma banezFoundation chairman and former Employment Minister in the Government Rajoy; and Inigo Fernandez de MesaChairman of the CEOE Economic Commission, chairman of the bank’s board of directors rotten child and the former Secretary of the Treasury, again at Moncloa, with Rajoy.

45 years of bosses

Carlos Ferrer Salat

(1977-1984)

Jose Maria Cuevas

(1984-2007)

Gerardo Diaz-Ferran

(2007-2010)

Juan Rosell

(2010-2018)

Antonio Garamendi

(2018-?)