It was a deployment planned for a long time but, for different reasons, it was postponed again and again, until today, it has finally been released. Foment’s study center, the Barcelona Society for Economic and Social Studies (SBEES), opens a branch in Madrid. The objective is to gain influence in Spanish economic policy, to influence and lead this process by moderating debates that the Catalan employers consider are not currently discussed in sufficient depth.
“Catalan businessmen want to lead the Spanish economy with modesty, but also with a lot of ambition and emotion,” said the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, at the presentation of the delegation in Madrid this morning. To also add that it is about taking advantage of a great asset that Spain has, which is diversity. “It is not a question of Catalans, but with Catalans,” Sánchez Llibre summarized the objective.
The SBEES delegation has its headquarters a few meters from the Congress of Deputies, but Foment insists that there is no desire to lobby political groups through this institution, but that this activity will continue to be carried out through the CEOE. “The study society is not a lobby, it is a think tank,” the president of Foment repeated, insisting on the good relationship he maintains with the CEOE.
The truth is that the presentation of this delegation is done in harmony with the CEOE and that this afternoon, in the first activity, the debate on “The city of the 21st century”, the Spanish employers’ association participates almost in full, with its president Antonio Garamendi , the president of Cepyme, Gerardo Cuerva, and the president of the Madrid Business Confederation, Miguel Garrido. The relationship between Sánchez Llibre and Garamendi has changed a lot since the last CEOE elections in November 2022. From the open confrontation, with Foment, which presented its own candidate, Virginia Guinda, it has moved to a practical agreement between the two. An agreement that was forged quickly. Sánchez Llibre continued as vice president of the CEOE and supported the modification of the statutes that allows Garamendi to run for a third term. It was a pragmatic solution that redirected a potential sedimentation of hostilities to move towards an agreed coexistence.
The Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, as well as the mayors of Barcelona, ??Jaume Collboni, Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, and Valencia, María José Català Verdet, also participate in this afternoon’s panel discussion. The session is presented by Ángel Simón, CEO of Criteria Caixa and president of the SBBES Sponsors Council.
In addition, Paco Hiraldo has been appointed delegate in Madrid of the Foment study society. With a degree in law and a Master’s degree in business legal advice from the IE, he has already joined the advisory board of the SBEES since last year.