The Generalitat Valenciana and the employers’ associations of the Valencian Community have expressed their displeasure over Junts’ decision to condition its support for the Government in exchange for “sanctioning” companies that do not return to Catalonia. Since 2017 and until the last quarter of 2022, almost a thousand Catalan companies have moved their headquarters to the Valencian Community, according to data provided by the Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism directed by Nuria Montes. Among these Caixabank, in Valencia, and Banc de Sabadell, in Alicante.
Councilor Nuria Montes told this newspaper that “we are going to defend the interests of these companies because no company can be sanctioned for an economic decision” and has shown her “surprise” at “the ability of some to subject the Government of Spain”. The spokesperson for the Generalitat Valenciana, Ruth Merino, has expressed herself in similar terms, describing Junts’ request as an “occurrence” and assuring that the Consell “does not have a specific plan to deal with this threat.” Merino has assured that the Consell has worked “from the first day so that companies come to the Community and do not want to leave, not only to Catalonia”, and has indicated that they lay a “red carpet” for them and “open the doors” for them.
The president of the Valencian Business Confederation, CEV; Salvador Navarro, points out in conversation with this newspaper that “Junts will have to be reminded that the key for companies to return is stability, and that his party has a lot to say in that. You cannot ask for stimuli, much less punishments, when the main problem has been the political and social instability to which they have also contributed. Let each one assume their part of responsibility.” Navarro adds that “in any case, whether the companies that fled Catalonia return is not a decision that the Government can make. It depends solely and exclusively on each company.”
For his part, José Vicente Morata, president of Càmara Valencia, defends that “the relationship between Catalan and Valencian companies is excellent, and all their decisions are limited to the economic sphere.” Sumar’s deputy spokesperson in Congress and leader of Compromís, Àgueda Micó, has also entered into the controversy and has rejected Junts’ proposal to sanction companies that left Catalonia due to the tensions derived from the independence process. “Punitiveness is not a solution,” she stated in a press conference in the Lower House.
After the events of 2017 in Catalonia, Sabadell and Caixabank, among many other companies, decided to move their headquarters to the Valencian Community, the first to Alicante and the second to València. That decision, in which Ximo Puig put a lot of interest, had a great soothing effect on the Valencian employers’ associations, which recovered a certain geographical proximity with two entities that have ended up being fundamental in the Valencian commercial field and also social and cultural. Without being the same as in the past, both Caixabank and Banc de Sabadell have become “Valencianized” in terms of business culture.
(((There will be an extension)))
