Europe05 October, 20262 min read
Pedro Sánchez’s Election Call Disrupts XXIX National Congress of Family Business in Madrid
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Pedro Sánchez canceled his opening appearance due to an early election call. The congress drew over 700 attendees from businesses, experts and institutions.
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Spain election reshapes forum
Pedro Sánchez’s early call for elections on November 29 disrupted the opening of the XXIX National Congress of the Family Business in Madrid, and the prime minister did not participate in the congress’s opening. The Institute of the Family Business president Eloi Planes reworked his speech after Sánchez’s absence, and Planes told attendees, “Perhaps together we must ensure that moderation becomes more attractive than polarization.”
Alberto Núñez Feijóo seized the spotlight after Sánchez’s cancellation, and Feijóo told the family entrepreneurs that Sánchez “has called elections because it suits him and he will use fear if he wins a party that isn’t his.” Felipe VI’s message arrived through Eloi Planes because the monarch could not attend in person due to a state visit to Finland, and the message stressed that “the commitment to long-term vision, to people and to communities is the distinctive mark” of family businesses.
Tax, housing, and moderation
Feijóo framed his intervention around housing and taxation, and he warned that “Sánchez calls elections because it suits him.” Feijóo said he would deflate the IRPF and insisted that “taxes must be lowered,” while he also tied his housing plan to young people under 35 with a transfer tax of 4% at the autonomous level and a demand that “the central government must reduce VAT to 4%.”
Feijóo argued that the housing crisis is “the great failure of this Government,” and he said it “must be the success of the next government.” Feijóo also linked his competitiveness agenda to absenteeism, and he called the rise in absenteeism “unbearable,” citing a jump from 450,000 people absent each day in 2018 to 1,200,000 daily workers.
Europe and the business agenda
Eloi Planes and the congress participants used the motto “CENTER OF GRAVITY” to connect competitiveness, technological sovereignty, artificial intelligence, and the geopolitical situation to the challenges facing family businesses. Emilio Gayo, CEO of Telefónica, said the transformation process required work on regulation, and he pointed to the need to have “companies with enough traction to invest and develop technology.”
Ana de Palacio, the former Foreign Minister, said “Europe will be strong in the world when it is strong within,” and she added that “Felipe VI is in Finland so they understand that the southern flank concerns them.” The congress also placed housing at the center of the economic debate, and Héctor Grisi, CEO of Banco Santander, said, “Limiting demand is not enough; it’s an issue of supply, of regulation that stimulates it and frees up land, and public backing.”