The controversial signing of Antonio Miguel Carmona as vice president of Iberdrola in Spain was echoed in the National Palace of Mexico. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Monday that the electricity company hired the former leader of the Social Workers Party of Spain (PSOE) as a sign of the political power that large companies have in that country. The comment has also served to justify his proposal for a Constitutional reform for the energy sector.
The initiative of the Mexican president limits the participation of electricity companies in Mexico to 46% of the market, to guarantee the rest to the state company, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). If Congress approves this reform to the Constitution, electricity generation contracts would be canceled and private operating permits would be suspended, among other provisions that seek to make the State the predominant player in the sector. López Obrador has insisted that the reason why electricity costs have skyrocketed in Spain has been due to the political influence that companies have over the Government.
“If the reform to the Constitution is not made, because these companies end up taking over the entire electricity market and it would happen to us what is happening now in Spain, that the electricity rates for the user are through the roof,” said López Obrador at his morning press conference. “But since there companies have a lot of power, since companies like Iberdrola wanted to keep it here, governments cannot do anything; with all due respect, because they look like employees ”.
Without saying his name, López Obrador alluded to the hiring of Georgina Kessel, who was Secretary of Energy under the presidency of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and who, at the end of her time as a public official, was appointed independent director of Iberdrola in Mexico. “Do you remember that Iberdrola here in Mexico hired the Secretary of Energy and former President Calderón? Well, there in Spain, yesterday, the day before, they just hired a high-level leader of the PSOE, the socialist workers’ party of Spain, they named him vice-president of Iberdrola ”, López Obrador said, referring to Carmona.
What does a politician know about the electricity industry? Nothing nothing. It is to show their arrogance and say: ‘We command’ “, said the President about the Iberdrola case in Spain. In Mexico, the CFE general director is Manuel Bartlett, a historical PRI politician who later moved to the ranks of Morena, the president’s party, and was appointed to office by López Obrador in 2018.
In Spain and other countries of the European Union, electricity costs soared due to the increase in the price of natural gas. Relations between the large electricity companies and the Government of Pedro Sánchez, of the PSOE, are going through a moment of tension right now from the crisis of the soaring electricity bill. The Government wants to implement a package of measures that would cut some benefits that companies enjoy in order to reduce by 22% what citizens pay for electricity. It was in this context that Iberdrola hired Carmona, who was a leader of the PSOE. The party reacted uneasily to the appointment, saying it was a “personal decision” of an “affiliate” who “does not represent the current leadership” of the party.
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