The CEOE made it clear this Thursday that the retirement age is not and should not be in the electoral debate. Given the proposal of the Círculo de Empresarios that the Government that leaves the polls defer the retirement age to a section between 68 and 72 years, the president of the employers’ association, Antonio Garamendi, quickly came out to demonstrate against the initiative . “In the agreements that we have, in principle, it is not at that age, but the Círculo de Empresarios has all the autonomy to make the proposals it considers,” said Garamendi, to later insist that debates are being introduced within the framework of the electoral campaign that the institutional representatives of the businessmen have not raised. “It is a debate that has come out today and that must be stopped,” said Garamendi.
It was the response to the Open Letter to future legislators and rulers, which the Círculo de Empresarios published this Thursday in which it justified the proposal because the recent reform of the pension system “does not ensure its viability, it only delays the problem”, therefore that propose a voluntary delay in the retirement age accompanied by a system of incentives.
The initiative ran into the opposition of the CEOE, which also launched its criticism of the Government. This is a relationship that went wrong a long time ago and that has been poisoning at times. The president of Cepyme, Gerardo Cuerva, demanded that the government that comes out of the elections radically changes its economic policy. First, he complained about the “climate of harassment against the company that unexpectedly left the Government of Spain itself”, and then, with an eye on the next elections, he claimed that “it is essential that the Government that emerges from the polls the next day 23 turn the tide.”
They are statements that he made at the end of the general assembly of Cepyme that was held this Wednesday in which he recounted the long list of grievances that he considers that the Government of Pedro Sánchez has committed. From the rise in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) to the increase in social contributions, which he affirms have harmed the operation of companies.
“It is impossible for Spain to grow and be competitive if it is its own government that attacks companies, executes interventionist policies, introduces confiscatory taxation or limits business freedom,” said Cuerva.
The latest clash between employers and the Government has been caused by the launch of the Observatory of Business Margins, which the employer considers “stigmatizes obtaining benefits.”
