“It’s ugly, very ugly.” In the Moncloa they transmit a total indignation with the decision of Ferrovial to transfer its headquarters to the Netherlands, and for the “ridiculous” reasons put forward by the company, since they warn that the Ibex 35 firm is only looking for a tax shelter to pay less taxes . Rather, they attribute it to the “personal interest” of the company’s top executive, Rafael del Pino.
In the first place, in Moncloa they criticize the forms, since they assure that they were not previously warned of such a far-reaching decision, and so detrimental to Spain, and that they hardly tried to contact the President of the Government after the construction company held its board of directors yesterday at mid-afternoon. “With the majority of serious companies, things are not done that way,” lamented the team accompanying Pedro Sánchez on his visit to the Irish capital, Dublin, as the first stop on a tour that this afternoon will take him to Copenhagen ( Denmark) and tomorrow to Helsinki (Finland).
But, in addition to the forms, in the Executive forcefully refute, above all, the arguments used by Ferrovial to move to the Netherlands, precisely another of the member states of the European Union that Sánchez plans to visit at the end of this month March. “Spain is above the Netherlands in terms of the quality of its legal certainty and regulatory stability, according to all the rankings,” they argue.
In Moncloa they warn that if Ferrovial goes to the Netherlands it is not in search of legal certainty, but to pay less taxes, pure and simple. “The Netherlands is only better than Spain in terms of the tax burden index,” they point out. And they criticize that despite having earned money in Spain “in loads”, now they seek to pay less taxes. The controversial decision charges Sánchez with arguments, in any case, to defend tax harmonization throughout the EU.
In the Government they indicate that they are studying the situation, but they assume that they do not have the tools to prevent the departure of Ferrovial. “It is not evident that it can be stopped immediately,” they acknowledge. For now, they assure that they are analyzing the reasons put forward by the construction company.
In the Government they emphasize that Spain is being the destination, at this time, of “huge investments” by large international corporations, which amount to up to 30,000 million euros last year. “It will be because the regulatory framework is good,” they point out, in contrast to the reasons given by Ferrovial for moving its headquarters outside of Spain.
However, government sources consider that Ferrovial’s decision to move its headquarters outside of Spain can also be attributed to personal reasons of its top executive, Rafael del Pino, due to the entry into force of the new tax for large fortunes approved by the Government coalition between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos.
Even socialist sources slip that political reasons may also operate in Ferrovial’s decision, due to the hypothetical links that they attribute to this corporation with Vox. Not surprisingly, one of the patrons of the Rafael del Pino Foundation is Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, a former high-ranking executive officer of Mariano Rajoy -he was a high-ranking government commissioner for the Spain Brand-, and father of the ultra-right party spokesman in Congress, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros.
