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The independence movement fails in its attempt to control the Catalan employer Pimec

Continuity has imposed itself on the rupture and the second great battle posed by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) for control of business organizations has not resulted in the success of 2019 in the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, when the list of Joan Canadell [hoy diputado electo de Junts per Catalunya en el Parlament] he won the elections with completeness. Antoni Cañete will be the new president of Pimec after overwhelmingly defeating the independence candidacy led by the metallurgical businessman Pere Barrios in the elections held yesterday.

The hitherto general secretary of the employers’ association SMEs has been imposed with a percentage of 83.3% of the votes [3.097 frente a los 599 de Eines Pimec], a result that was known after midnight, several hours later than expected. In this way, civil secessionism has not achieved, on this occasion, its objective of progressively reaching the first line of command in organizations with high social influence, such as employers, unions, professional associations or rectorships.

CaÃete, who was running on behalf of the Consortium of Manufacturers of Electrical Material (Cofme), has been the number of of Pimec since 2005 and was the dolphin chosen by Josep González to relieve him of the presidency once his term ended in 2022, a change that has been advanced after the president’s resignation only three weeks ago. One of the advantages that the brand new winner started with was the weighted vote available to unions or associations, which in the case of his candidacy [Activisme empresarial] they carried considerable weight.

The long lines that were seen for several hours at the headquarters of Barcelona, ​​Girona, Tarragona, Lleida and Manresa evidenced the high expectation generated by the appointment, since it was the first time since its merger with the employer Sefes in 1997, that Pimec held an election with two candidates [el ex presidente González Siempre había concurrido con una lista de consenso y sin oposición]. Nearly half of the census (45.9%) in which some 122,000 companies are represented has participated in the voting.

Last Monday, the group supported by the ANC presented a brief of allegations before the Electoral Board of the employer for alleged “irregularities, inequality and lack of legal security” in the election process. And yesterday, the pro-independence list again showed its complaints with the operation of the day: “Pimec has put ballot boxes, for the first time in its history, but it has made access to voters very difficult.”

In recent days, Eines Pimec has added new public complaints to the difficulties derived from the short timeframe to organize a candidacy, considering that votes had been delegated prior to the presentation of its list and that, on the other hand, only to they had been denied access to the census. However, after knowing the results, Barrios has avoided delving into the reproaches and has recognized the “clear victory” of his opponent: “Our project does not fit in this house, as the partners have decided, but we will not stop trying.”

Politics

CaÃete, who has said that voters have opted “for moderation in the face of tension”, had appealed in all his messages to the “transversality” of his group in the face of the political interests of his rival, whom he accused of pretending use the bosses as “a puppet”. In addition to the interference of politics, another controversy during the campaign has been the modification of the statutes that was carried out last year so that the president can charge a salary. Barrios, who in addition to being a member of Pimec is second vice president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, had assured that if he were elected he would suppress that point, while CaÃete defends the measure within his purpose of changing the model of governance.

Collaboration or rivalry with Work Promotion is another of the issues that has marked the electoral race, since Eines Pimec advocated eating land from the organization he presides Josep Sánchez Llibre, while Caà ± ete considers that the current representative business distribution in Catalonia is comparable to European models and has equipped Barriosâ € ™ idea to the “vertical union of other times”.

In the four-year term that is now beginning, two of the new president’s main objectives will be to achieve “real representation” of SMEs at the national level in order to be able to sit at the same table as CEOE and “the fight against bad debts” of public administrations and large companies.

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