Faced with the nerves and doubts of recent days, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, wanted to convey this Thursday a message of confidence in the “strength” and “robustness” of Spanish banks and in the controls to which they are subjected , both by the Bank of Spain and by the European banks themselves.
From Zaragoza, where he was participating in a trade forum, the employers’ association leader stressed that the American Silicon Valley Bank was exposed to “extremely high” risks and has nothing to do with Spanish banks, while Credit Suisse, which is outside of European control, already had problems from before.
The message that must be conveyed, he stressed, is that the Spanish financial system is “absolutely robust and of security and stability.”
In another order of things, Garamendi continued with his give and take with the Minister of Social Security, Juan Luis Escrivá, on account of the pension reform agreed upon by the Government with the support of Brussels and the backing of the unions, but not of the CEOE.
Asked about the criticism of his lack of proposals, the businessman insisted that the responsibility for preparing it falls on Escrivá and not on them, and accused Moncloa of not offering them “an economic plan or projections.”
“Don’t blame us for having responsibility because he does. We have the legitimacy to say that we are not satisfied, that it is not good, that it does not meet objectives and that it burdens the entire approach on companies and workers ”, he explained.
Garamendi also spoke about the controversy caused by the collection of the thermal social bonus by the vice president of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ossorio, or the spokesperson for Más Madrid, Mónica García.
In this sense, he defended aid to the most vulnerable, but labeled as “electoralist” the measures that are launched in a “generalized” way, and advocated being more “selective”. “The generalized measures are electoral, but they do not reflect good management, since they involve much more spending that is not necessary. We are in favor of helping those who really need it.”
“That I know, no,” he said about whether he, who is a large family, has also received this help.
Regarding the benefits obtained by banks or supermarkets as opposed to the few salary increases, he specifically referred to Mercadona, the leader in the Spanish market with a 25% share, and defended its billion-dollar investments and the creation of more than 3,000 jobs. “That is what you have to see” in the face of maximum approaches that “are not realistic,” he added.
The bosses’ leader spoke to the media before speaking at the Commerce C4-CEOE meeting organized in Zaragoza under the title “We are commerce, we are country”.
The meeting was also attended by the president of Aragon, Javier Lambán, for whom the Credit Suisse crisis catches Spain quite far from the “epicenter of that earthquake”, which also may not be “so strong and worrying”. “I think it’s out of the question that it’s comparable to Lehman Brothers in 2008,” he concluded.
