The possible change to the CEOE statutes to eliminate the limitation of two terms for its president comes from afar. This possibility already began to be considered before the elections last November that clearly ratified Antonio Garamendi to repeat as president of the employers’ association. At that time, before the elections, opening that melon seemed inappropriate and it was parked. Now, Garamendi, with the resounding support that he received in those elections, with more than three years to go and only a few weeks before the elections on July 23, has decided to take the step.
He raised it this Thursday night in his meeting with the vice presidents of the employers’ association. It is a first step, then the proposal will go through the internal regime commission, which is the one that has to make the formal approach, by the board of directors on the 21st of this month, and finally, the approval of the assembly called for the 19th of July.
Garamendi expressed his intentions to want to change the statutes, including the suppression of the change of mandate, in a statement to El Mundo. If the change is approved, it would allow him to run for a third term when his current term ends at the end of 2026. Although Garamendi has not expressed his intention to run again as president until 2030, the truth is that this statutory amendment only affects him .
In the hours before the announcement, Garamendi spoke individually with several of the vice presidents to inform them and gather first impressions. This Thursday morning, the president of the Madrid employers’ association (CEIM), Miguel Garrido, already raised the issue in his executive, although, according to some sources, without resulting in a clear statement from the meeting. For its part, Foment del Treball will discuss its position at the board of directors on Monday. The stormy relations between Garamendi and the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, are well known, although it is also true that they have been redirected since the November elections in the CEOE. “At the moment, there is a good personal relationship between Garamendi and Sánchez Llibre,” some businessmen point out. In any case, Foment’s decision has not yet been made and it will be time for a ruling on Monday at a board of directors in which some dissenting voices are expected to be heard.
The truth is that the introduction of this limit of two terms in the presidency of the CEOE is recent. It was established in 2014 by Juan Rosell, when he was president of the employers’ association, and he was the first affected, since he left the presidency in 2018, after two consecutive terms. Before Rosell, there was no limit to the number of years in the presidency during the time of Carlos Ferrer Salat, José MarÃa Cuevas and Gerardo DÃaz. The most obvious example is Cuevas, who was in charge of the organization for no less than 23 years.
In recent months, Garamendi has multiplied his confrontations with the Government of Pedro Sánchez, and especially with the Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda DÃaz. Some shocks that come after a much more placid and understanding first period, which was the one that led to the multitude of pacts between the social agents and the executive. The most prominent was the labor reform, which cost him criticism both internally in the CEOE and externally, especially from the Popular Party. Garamendi’s relationship with Casado’s PP was bad, and it is much better with Feijóo’s.
When the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) was signed in May, the CEOE vetoed the presence of members of the Government and wanted to make it very clear that it was a two-way pact.
