In the last 25 years of the history of the Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona, it had never happened that a decision of the plenary had to be decided by the vote of its president. Josep Santacreu (Guisssona, 1958) has faced this week the most intense disagreement of his term, with the opposition of half of the body to expand the so-called silver seats to give more weight to large companies.
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To what extent is the institution fractured after this vote?
The existence of a disagreement on a specific issue is not serious or critical. There were many other matters in the plenary and all were approved unanimously. There is no situation of confrontation or rupture in the Cambra, absolutely not. 95% of the issues are approved practically without any votes against or abstentions.
Why did it happen precisely with this issue?
We understand that the issue of the seats is not simple. There was an obvious disagreement from Eines de País and also from part of the small and medium-sized enterprises that are in the orbit of Pimec.
Were you surprised that the result was so close?
The truth is no. I had a photocopy of the regulations on the table to know what would happen if we tied. We knew it was a vote that would go by one vote because we had had conversations.
Why was a prior agreement with Pimec not possible?
If there are 15 large companies in the Cambra, it means that 14 SMEs and self-employed gave us support. And this explains a bit the difficulty of pushing the measure forward, because the Cambra we currently have is biased towards SMEs and the self-employed. With Pimec we tried to reach an agreement, proposing a position of understanding that in the end was not concretized.
The Comuns and the CUP have asked the Consell de Garanties Estatutàries to review the Cambres law precisely because of the controversy over the seats. Do you think it will have any progress?
In the two and a half years I have been working on the law, no one has ever questioned the distribution of the seats. The law says that in the case of Barcelona it could reach up to 14 silver seats. I see a certain opportunism on the part of these two parties. We are very calm and happy because we will finally have a law. I regret that we have to wait a couple or three months because of this surprising decision.
You also had disagreements with Pimec over the wording of the Cambres law.
With Pimec we had more than a year of conversations. We made more than 20 drafts. And, finally, we reached what we considered an agreement and now President Cañete says it was a non-disagreement. It is an interesting term that I had never heard before. We are at the end of the road and what we must do is congratulate ourselves because we will have a good law.
After what happened on Thursday, will your relations change?
It is evident that the events of Thursday are important, because we had never had a disagreement of this type. But I think there is much more that unites us than separates us from Pimec. Even, if you push me, with Eines. This moment had to happen and it has happened, it is normal that there is a certain difference of opinion.
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Why do you defend expanding these silver seats to ten?
We have proposed this change to adjust the representativeness of the different types of companies in the plenary to the economic reality of the country. At this moment, it does not reflect it proportionally. And we would have done the same if it were the other way around and there was an overrepresentation of large companies and an underrepresentation of small and medium-sized ones. We do nothing that is not democratic and legal because the law provides for it. It is an instrument that allows us to give them a little more weight without reaching the real proportion of almost 40% that large companies have in Catalonia. Now there is a situation of privilege for SMEs, with certain acquired rights. Our obligation is to think about the general interest, balance the plenary and openly say that the Cambra is not the Cambra of small and medium-sized enterprises. All types of companies must feel well represented. We take a risk. This approach was not comfortable because we could lose in a plenary so biased towards SMEs, but we did it out of conviction and we succeeded.
How will the greater weight of large companies be noticed?
It is important that the Cambra is stronger and this strength also comes from having large companies. This will not have an immediate effect, we are defining the future plenary, which will go to the elections of October 2027. If we have made a mistake in the approach, the voters will have the word.
Do you think it could harm you in your re-election?
I suppose I will run again for the same category. If I end up being the president, the plenary will decide. When I started I said my idea was to be four years and that someone from Va d’Empresa would take over. This is a conversation we are having that may happen next year or in two years. I do not rule out running again if the candidacy deems it appropriate. Although I strongly believe in the renewal of positions and not lingering in a place like the Cambra.
On Friday, the budget execution data became known. Catalonia receives 8.6% of the investment, when its weight in the Spanish GDP is 19%.
It is very bad news. Recently at the Cambra we presented a report in which we estimated that the investment the State should make in Catalonia until 2040 is 52 billion. With these data, the calculation will worsen. Instead of reducing the deficit, we are increasing it. There is no excuse that, whatever the color of the Government, this continues to happen. There are communities that are able to get very close to 100% or even exceed it. The Government should say something about this immediately, take measures so that it does not happen again and compensate for it. It is difficult to explain how with a Spanish Government very close to the Catalan executive we have repeated this situation. It has no explanation.
Do you share the conclusions of the Fènix Report by a group of economists that blamed sectors such as tourism or meat for Catalonia’s low productivity?
We are doing an in-depth analysis but I can point out some initial opinion. We consider that pointing to any sector as responsible for low productivity is a mistake. When we analyze the productivity problem, compared to other countries that have higher productivity, we see that it is a transversal reality across all sectors. Here we all have work as a country to explore issues related to education, talent, investment, infrastructure to develop those sectors.
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