Division in the extraordinary plenary this Thursday at the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, which will experience one of the tensest votes of this last term. The executive committee, the highest governing body of the institution chaired by Josep Santacreu, approved last week an agreement to increase the so-called silver seats from 2 to 10, and now it is the plenary that must decide whether to accept this measure or not. What is at stake is the number of board seats linked to a voluntary financial contribution and which have historically been held by major corporations relevant to the Catalan economy. The pro-independence candidacy Eines de País – which won the 2019 elections and lost the 2023 ones against Santacreu – opposes it, as does the Catalan employers’ association Pimec.
As of today, these two seats are occupied by CriteriaCaixa and the RACC, but until 2019 there were 14 silver seats. It was then that Eines de País reduced them to the minimum required by law because it considered that they gave excessive weight to large companies, since these were not voted on by Barcelona entrepreneurs, but were obtained through an economic auction. Precisely, during the previous term, Naturgy, Hoteles Catalonia, and Abertis left their paid seats in the plenary due to dissatisfaction with the direction the organization was taking.
Currently, the only two silver seats are held by the holding CriteriaCaixa and the RACC
Currently, 52 of the 60 seats in the Chamber plenary are chosen by suffrage, since, in addition to the two silver seats, there are six board seats reserved for Catalan employers’ associations, which are equally divided between Foment del Treball and Pimec, with three each. If this new classification of board seats is approved by majority, only 44 of them would be directly voted on. Even so, the measure would not be applied immediately. In fact, this modification is decided in the final stretch of Santacreu’s first term because it would take effect in the next Chamber elections, scheduled for 2027.
The arithmetic of the vote is not clear: Eines de País has 21 plenary members and Pimec has three, but there are also board members who are part of Santacreu’s candidacy (Va d’Empresa) who are also members of the Catalan SME employers’ association. This is the case of Emili Rousaud, founder and CEO of the marketer Factorenergia. The businessman has been one of the interlocutors, along with the Chamber’s vice president and president of Fluidra, Eloi Planes, who have tried to calm the waters in the internal negotiation of this controversial measure. In this regard, there could be more dissenting votes than the obvious ones that would tip the balance towards the opponents in this Thursday’s plenary. In any case, sources familiar with the ins and outs of the debate point out that the Chamber’s executive committee would not have brought the measure to a vote if it were not sure it would pass.
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The detractors of this change criticize that it will give too much weight to large corporations
From the institution, they consider that by expanding the silver seats to 10, the plenary will be more representative and will encompass both SMEs and large companies. It is worth remembering that there are also corporations such as Banc Sabadell, the parking company Saba, the automotive components supplier Ficosa, or the supermarkets Ametller Origen that have seats in the plenary because they were elected in their categories.
Silver seats are obtained by paying a minimum annual contribution of 75,000 euros, which can be higher depending on what the applicants bid. In the past, they were held by companies such as Deloitte, Indra, PwC, Damm, or Mediolanum.
