Former president Carles Puigdemont met this Monday in Perpignan, in the south of France, with the president of the Catalan employers’ association Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre.
Members of the management of the business group participated in the meeting, as well as some members of the Junts candidacy and the party’s general secretary, Jordi Turull.
At the meeting, according to the statement sent by the group, the economic situation in Catalonia was addressed and the Catalan employers’ association conveyed to Puigdemont and the leaders of the posconvergents their priorities in the economic field in view of the parliamentary elections on May 12. “A more competitive tax system, the execution of the investments that the country needs and greater legal certainty,” the statement states.
From Foment they highlight that they have transmitted the 465 proposals that the employers consider pertinent” before the electoral call and have demanded a “positive and dynamic economic ecosystem.” To this end, the business association demands the elimination of the wealth tax, a reduction in marginal rates of personal income tax in Catalonia, and lowering the tax rate on inheritance and donation tax. These are demands that Junts has also raised in the last two years when negotiating the budgets of the Generalitat with the Government and that are included in its presentation. sectoral of the last congress.
Other relevant issues that Foment considers that should be addressed are “energy transformation, water scarcity and drought management” and issues such as the deficit in infrastructure investments in Catalonia and the lack of execution once are planned. In this sense, the employers’ association urges the expansion of the El Prat airport, its connection with the AVE stations in Catalonia or giving a more relevant role to Catalonia in the management of the Next Generation European funds.
The meeting, which took place in the space where Puigdemont is working these days, was attended by the political party, in addition to Turull, by the until now president of the JxCat parliamentary group, Albert Batet, director of the Junts campaign, and the number two in the candidacy, the businesswoman linked to new technologies Anna Navarro, who arrived in Catalonia a few days ago from San Francisco.
On behalf of the management, Sánchez Llibre was accompanied by the general secretary, David Tornos, and the vice-presidents Xavier Panés, Baldiri Ros, Mar Alarcón, Santiago García-Nieto, Josep Maria Gardeñes and Cinta Pascual.
According to the post-convergents, after today’s meeting with Foment, they begin a round of contacts with the social agents, with the representatives of the economic and social entities of Catalonia to learn first-hand the main demands of these actors regarding the Catalan electoral contest. .
The circumstance is that this very Monday, in Barcelona, ??another Catalan employer, Pimec, has organized a debate with the candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat. Given Puigdemont’s situation, on behalf of Junts, number three on his list has come, former councilor Josep Rull.
From the employers’ association, in turn, they point out that the meeting is included in the “institutional normality” and remember that they will not hold any electoral debate although they have “the doors open to all the heads of the list” of the elections to the Parliament of 12 of May.
