Entrepreneur, Canadell is elected president of the Chamber of Barcelona by majority
Elections: sovereignty seizes the Chamber of Barcelona
The
Barcelona Chamber of Commerce
, controlled by business sectors linked to the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), is left without three reference companies.
Naturgy,
Abertis
and
Catalonia Hotels & Resorts
have left the plenary
session
of the organization, where they occupied three of the 14 silver seats [the name given to the places reserved for large companies that contribute 75,000 euros per year].
According to sources from the chamber, this triple resignation, which was made official in the ordinary plenary session last January, would not respond to political motivations, but to a process of internal reorganization of the three corporations due to the crisis caused by the Covid pandemic.
Despite the fact that none of the three companies links it to the independence roadmap of the current executive management, there is discomfort with the functioning of the highest governing body of the Barcelona economic revitalization institution, as published by
Expansión
this Wednesday
.
Several members of the plenary session consider that they are not taken into account in the sessions and their proposals are continuously ignored: "We find out about important decisions through
or the media."
After having reviewed its participation policies in public institutions, Naturgy attributes this resignation to the decision to leave several chamber entities.
Abertis sources, who acknowledge that the ideological drift of the institution "does not help", explained to Efe that the company chose to dispense with its seat in the plenary session because, as of next August, its presence in
Catalonia
will be residual once they have completed the concessions for its main
highways
in the community, the AP-7 and the AP-2.
Despite the resignation, both the energy company and Abertis will continue to collaborate with the institution.
From Catalonia Hotels, for their part, they point out that the management team is only focused on its strategy to combat the effects of the coronavirus crisis, which is seriously affecting the hotel and tourism sector.
The Chamber of Barcelona has opened a process of partial elections, which will end on March 9, so that companies interested in filling the three vacant positions can present their candidacies.
Independence victory
In addition to the aforementioned 14 silver chairs and the six representatives that correspond to the
Foment del Treball
and
Pimec
employers' associations
, the plenary
session
of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Services and Navigation is made up of 40 members elected by direct suffrage.
And it was in the last elections, in May 2019, when the independence movement removed the business board by obtaining 31 of these members.
The
Catalan
establishment
failed to mobilize within its circles of influence [turnout was 4.1% of the census] and the candidacy
Cambres: Eines de País
[Chambers: Country Tools], sponsored by the ANC and the
Catalan Circle of Business
, was emphatically imposed on all the others, among which stood out that of the former CEO of Damm
Enric Crous
or that of the financier
Carles Tusquets
, current president of the FC Barcelona Management Commission.
After 17 years in the presidency of the institution,
Miquel Valls
took over from the activist
Joan Canadell
, founder and partner of the company
Petrolis Independents
and today elected deputy of Junts per Catalunya in the
Parliament
.
Canadell yielded the presidency of the Chamber to
Mònica Roca
three weeks ago
, with a more technical profile, to focus on the electoral campaign of Carles Puigdemont's party, in which he occupied third place on the list for
Barcelona
, and in a hypothetical career in the future
Govern
.
Roca's succession, still in office, should also take place in a few months as a rotating presidency of two years had been agreed for each one.
New strategy
The irruption of the pro-independence business community in the Chamber in 2019 was not an isolated initiative, but is part of the ANC's strategy for sovereignty to take over institutional power in Catalonia beyond the political sphere.
After demonstrating its enormous capacity to mobilize in the street with massive demonstrations, especially those of the Diada, the association chaired by
Elisenda Paluzie
set its sights on positions of high representation of civil society and on managing to change the dynamics of the economy domestic.
That is where the Strategic Consumption campaign was born, aimed at proposing "alternatives to the oligopolies and the
Ibex 35
".
Having pro-independence executives in the
Palau de la Generalitat
had proven insufficient to achieve a break with Spain, as was seen in 2017, and it was necessary to "flee from the factual powers of the State and empower the consumer."
At the end of last year, the
National Commission of Markets and Competition
opened a sanctioning file against the Catalan National Assembly for that campaign for possible "unfair practices that seriously distort" competition in the market.
The second blow of effect occurred two months ago, with the proclamation as new rector of the
University of Barcelona
of
Joan Guàrdia
, a candidate sponsored by the ANC who with 54% of the support defeated
Joan Elias
, who had been the target of the criticism of the independence movement for not following their theses.
And the third round is played next Tuesday.
The
Eines Pimec
collective
will face the candidacy headed by the current secretary general of Pimec,
Antoni Cañete
, in the elections to renew the governing bodies of the Catalan employers' association of
SMEs
and succeed
Josep González
in his presidency.
At the head of the sovereign list is the businessman
Pere Barrios
, who threatens to reopen the war with Foment two years after the peace signed after more than a decade of litigation between the two organizations over their institutional representation.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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