John de Zulueta (1947, Massachusetts) is the first president of the Circle of Entrepreneurs with two decades of experience in the private healthcare sector, leading Sanitas between 1991 and 2009. He is now the head of this influential business association, criticizing in telephone conversation with EL MUNDO so much the health and economic management of the Government against the coronavirus.

Have deaths in Spain been saved in this crisis? Yes, and from my experience I am very concerned. A collapse and many deaths would have been avoided by taking very quick actions. We are losing human lives due to the ineptitude of the Government and its mismanagement of the process. I remember that on February 24 Carmen Calvo said that those at the Mobile World Congress did not come for health reasons but because of a fight with China or I don't know what. They were ignoring the risk and did not take action until March 12 that schools close. In between was the manifestation of Women. Three weeks were lost and each week costs lives. Governments in other countries have also been slow to react ... It is true that in other countries they did not see it either, but any personnel who study pandemics know that they jump from one country to another. Italy's trips to soccer games should have been banned from the March 8 demonstrations ... The Imperial College report places Spain as the one with the highest proportion of infected population, followed by Italy. There is still a large percentage of asymptomatic carriers. What do you think of the actions of the Ministry of Health? Mr. Illa is not going to be our savior, let's say so. Illa, who has no training for that, has been placed in the most important Ministry of the moment. His appointment by PSC fee is one of the most important flaws. His experience is having been mayor of a town of 10,500 people. The ineptitude of the Ministry has been seen in the failed purchase in China. They have no staff, people who know how to buy in China. In an emergency like this it is terrible to have 17 buyers and it is good to centralize, but the Ministry has no capacity. I remember Celia Villalobos and the crazy cows, but what is happening now multiplies that by millions. With the healthcare response well done, the economic one would come out with much less cost. It is going to be plotting and paying the debt of this will be for our great-great-grandchildren. What should Sánchez do? He should change ministers or at least a team of shadow experts helping them, because in the government they are lost. In the Ministry of Health you have to put another at least temporarily. There are highly educated people in the autonomous communities who can be useful. You said that Sánchez should not form a government with Podemos ... The Circle has always said that there should be a centrist government avoiding the extreme right of Vox and the extreme left of Podemos. The ideal would be a centrist national concentration government with PSOE, PP and Citizens against the emergency, but it is a pipe dream. Sánchez does not speak to Casado and Casado does not speak to Sánchez. The ideal would be to dispense with the Podemos ministers, but at the moment it is impossible, because Sánchez instead of going to the center in this crisis and calling Casado y Arrimadas has come closer to Podemos. Although the Prime Minister is capable of making a 180 degree turn in 24 hours ... We will see. Is Calviño losing his pulse in front of Pablo Iglesias? I said from the first moment that Calviño was the finger on a levee in the face of a flood .. The pressure is so great that Calviño alone cannot. Churches and their ultra-left wing are increasingly taking center stage. It is very clear. And the minister Escrivá? Escrivá is very solid, with many knowledge. He and Calviño give us confidence, but they are only two of 22 and in the last decisions the hand of churches is seen more than that of Calviño. Will the successive plans of the government serve? They will not work. That of postponing Social Security payments has been approved after having collected the one in March in which many people have lost the business. Neither did the ERTEs, because the Government did not expect so many at once. How are they going to pay two million people? The Danish system of giving money to companies that already have the system to pay employees, but they do not trust, would have been better. The Minister of Labor is an ultraleftist who treats employers as criminals. What about the recoverable permit? It should be paid by the State. It is a way to hibernate companies, but there are eight business days in which you have to recover 64 hours between now and the end of the year and many tell me that it is not feasible in your company. For example summer hotels with short season. Others who already have three eight-hour shifts in their factory and can't put in an extra hour ... And the economic hibernation? The last weekend has been tremendous. Everything that arrives at the BOE at midnight is run over and the worst thing is that it was done without consulting. Garamendi was called half an hour earlier than what they call hibernation. In this government they have not set foot in a factory in their lives, they have no idea what private business is. Then they realized that many industries have to work at least to the rhythm of Sunday. A steel mill with high temperatures all year round cannot stop like this. A glass factory, which has to have hot ovens all weekend. The guarantees? It's a good idea, but they do it very slowly. The paperwork to be done for a credit or for an ERTE is unimaginable. How will the unemployment evolve after the March figure? The smash of 834,000 jobs destroyed is just the beginning of this perpendicular drop. Until the government understands that 85% of the jobs created are from private companies, we will not get out of this crisis. I calculate 6 million unemployed this year, according to the ERTEs. Unfortunately, I will break the record of unemployed in Spain. They got to prohibit firing, because for many companies it was cheaper to dismiss due to force majeure and to pay 20 days than to go to ERTE because of how it was designed.

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  • We can
  • China
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • Carmen Calvo
  • Yolanda Diaz
  • Vox
  • Celia Villalobos
  • Social Security
  • Citizens
  • Pablo Iglesias
  • PSOE
  • PSC
  • PP
  • Mobile World Congress
  • March 8

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