“It is one thing to exercise power and another to know how to influence power.” The phrase is from a Catalan businessman very close to Foment del Treball Nacional and who knows well the main business institutions in both Barcelona and Madrid, and uses it to describe the capacity of Josep Sánchez Llibre and the influence that the great Catalan employers are exerting under his mandate in the country’s economic affairs.
The last example that materialized and surely the most relevant, is the elimination of the special tax on energy companies a few days ago. Foment mobilized publicly and privately for this to happen, alleging that it was a “discriminatory” measure and an “attack on the heart of the economy.” And he achieved it, thanks to the votes against Junts and the PNV in Congress, which ended up agreeing with the PSOE to knock down this rate, although they maintained the tax on banks.
Along with Repsol’s threat to paralyze million-dollar investments in Tarragona, “here one of the key issues for this to come out was the PNV’s reaction to the threat also of relocating activity by Petronor”, a subsidiary of the multinational headed by Josu Jon. Imaz and owner of the Muskiz refinery (Bizcaia), says a Foment executive very close to Sánchez Llibre.
An almost exact copy of the above could soon be produced. Only two days after the PSOE and Sumar announced a tax reform for 2025 that, among other measures, includes raising VAT on tourist rentals, a luxury tax and the end of the tax regime for listed real estate investment companies (socimis), the structure of counterpower was put into operation again. On the one hand, Foment asked Junts and the PNV to vote against the tax suppression of SOCIMIs and, on the other, the two largest real estate companies in Spain, Merlin and Colonial, threatened the Government with leaving the country if it is approved. the tax plan.
Both episodes exemplify the two main lines of action of Foment led by Sánchez Llibre: the defense of the economic interests of Catalonia and the Spanish “productive economy”, paraphrasing the old CiU, and taking advantage of the window of opportunity that it represents for a pure-bred lobbyist the current parliamentary geometry or, in other words, take advantage of the weakness of the current coalition government between PSOE and Sumar to sneak in their agenda.
A window for Garamendi and Puigdemont
Sánchez Llibre has managed to convince both the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi – who buried the hatchet for the presidency of the employers’ association ten minutes after sweeping away the candidate supported by Foment – and Carles Puigdemont, president of Junts. “Garamendi has been and is informed at all times of Sánchez Llibre’s meetings with Puigdemont and has never opened his mouth,” they recall from Foment.
In the CEOE, of which Foment is a part, they “tolerate very well” the prominence of the former Catalan politician because it is an organization that really feels the economic power. “Business elites see Sánchez Llibre as an important asset because they see that he defends their interests,” summarizes one businessman.
Despite the meetings with Junts and Puigdemont to guide the Spanish legislature based on Foment’s economic program and the evident turn of the pro-independence party towards a conservative economic front, according to their votes in parliamentary seats, “no way did Junts “It is the political arm of Foment!” clarifies a leader of the Catalan employers’ association, who recalls: “Junts’ attempt to want to be the CiU of before remains to be seen, it is a very unstable formation.”
Tacit agreement with Junts, PNV and PP: “we marry whoever”
Foment insists that they speak with all political forces, but the same source admits that “there is a tacit agreement with Junts, PNV and PP for everything that can benefit companies and the economy, especially in the face of certain Sumar and Vice President Yolanda Díaz. We marry whoever.”
Those who know and are close to Josep Sánchez Llibre (born in Vilassar de Mar, Barcelona, in 1949) remember at the same time his inexhaustible capacity for work and his capacity for influence forged after several decades as a deputy for CiU in the Congress of Deputies and spokesperson on the Economy and Finance Commission of the lower house for six terms, between 1993 and 2016.
Since his assault on the presidency of Foment del Treball in 2018 through the vice-presidency of Conserves Dani, the politician belonging to the defunct Unió Democràtica de Catalunya does not miss the opportunity to appear omnipresently at the forefront of the main business and economic challenges of Catalonia , taking advantage of the non-appearance in several of them of the governments of Quim Torra (Junts) and Pere Aragonès (ERC).
“He likes to be at all the parties,” comments an influential businessman who is a regular on the Barcelona-Madrid AVE. Thus, he was involved from the first moment in the search for alternatives to the closure of Nissan in Barcelona after the pandemic, as more recently in the creation of a commission to promote the expansion of Barcelona Airport.
Lobby in Madrid
But Catalonia is too small for him. Josep Sánchez Llibre “has a Spanish vocation and it must be recognized that he is a great lobbyist in Madrid, with a surprising talent to reach all places,” recalls one of the managers consulted. What for some is nothing more than an “extension of the politician who was in Congress”, for others is nothing more than the original essence of the great Catalan employers’ association.
From all areas of Foment it is remembered that from its foundation – it is the oldest employers’ association in Europe, its origins date back to 1771 – until the arrival of democracy – with the Franco regime, the employers’ association could not act as such -, it had its scope of action throughout Spain. And they remember the key role played by Catalan businessmen Alfredo Molinas and Carles Ferrer Salat, both presidents of Foment, in the creation of the CEOE.
This is the explanation, they say, for the landing of the Catalan employers’ association in Madrid, through the Barcelona Society of Economic and Social Studies (SBEES), in February of this year. The business sources consulted rule out that it had anything to do with disagreements with Garamendi, “who happily attends all the events” that the Barcelona Company holds in the Spanish capital.
“Although Foment is within the CEOE, Sánchez Llibre has its own life, it is a free verse, and sometimes there is a disagreement,” says an executive. Like when he publicly expressed his opposition to the labor reform that the CEOE approved.
The director of the Foment del Treball Presidency cabinet, the former Unió politician Jordi Casas, remembers that “the influence of the Catalan business community in Madrid has always existed and that is the idea that Sánchez Llibre had in mind, to lobby in Madrid on industrial issues, introduce topics of debate”, outside the Círculo de Empresarios and the Institute of Economic Studies. The last one was, a month ago, on the automotive industry through a conference that brought together representatives of the governments of Aragon and Galicia and managers of the main brands that manufacture in Spain.
“Our idea is to look for common points between Barcelona and Catalonia with other cities and communities with the will to be there and lead. There is an industrial Catalonia with a vocation to participate in the Spanish economy with the interest that the Catalan industry does well,” explains Casas, who adds: “It is about recovering the idea of Tarradellas and Vicens Vives of being able to reach an agreement with Madrid all the topics that benefit us economically without awakening the emotional wolf. It is the idea of a friendly Catalonia, which is part of Spain, but with sufficient autonomy.”
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