The CEOE approves in Assembly that Garamendi can perpetuate himself as president

The CEOE has approved this Wednesday in the General Assembly to end the limitation of two mandates that existed to date for its president, Antonio Garamendi, who will now be able to run again in 2026 for internal elections to be revalidated in office and, if elected, continue at the head of the business association until at least 2030.

The leadership of the CEOE points out that the change had been preparing for months and that it has been carried out at the proposal of the organizations that make up the employers' association and that they asked their president to do so, but the truth is that when the Executive Committee endorsed the modification of the Statutes a month ago there were some internal voices that expressed their concerns. Some, in addition, had recently modified their statutes to adapt them to nationals and now they will have to explain to their members that they have been left alone in that limitation..

After going through the Executive Committee, the proposal has received the green light from the Internal Regime Commission and by the Committee and the Board of Directors, before being approved this Wednesday in the General Assembly held at the headquarters of the Spanish Olympic Committee. The change has gone ahead in the Assembly unanimously except for the abstention of one of the members present, who has absented immediately after the vote. A total of 502 members participated between present and represented.

“It is a question that some of our organizations had asked us to examine because the right of the Assembly to elect and re-elect whoever presents the candidacy for the presidency was taken away,” explained Mirenchu del Valle, president of UNESPA and vice president of CEOE and president of the Internal Regime Commission, before the vote.

In the Assembly this Wednesday, the CEOE has also modified the electoral regime and calendar and the processes to be able to elect the organization's president, has approved the 2022 Annual Report, the 2022 accounts and the 2023 Budget.

Make it difficult for other candidates

The modification of the electoral regime means that the candidates who want to present themselves to preside over the organization will now need to have the endorsement of 10% of the voters -the equivalent of some 78 members representing at least 6 organizations-, while before the support of 20 members was enough.

This increase in the number of endorsements necessary to be able to run will make it difficult for some major organizations within the CEOE to present their candidate unilaterally, since only Cepyme exceeds that number of members by itself, while to date they could.. Now they will need to previously seek the support of the members of other organizations.

The General Assembly has also approved that if there is only one candidate in an electoral process, the ballot box is removed and the vote does not take place: the candidate will automatically be proclaimed president.

The modification will put obstacles to the fact that other candidates can attend the elections, which together with the end of the limitation of two terms for the president, seems to seek to pave the way for Antonio Garamendi to perpetuate himself sine die at the head of the organization.

Garamendi benefited from the cap in 2018

It was in 2014 when Juan Rosell, the then president of the employers' association, established this cap to limit the mandates. He had been leading the employers' association for four years and complied with the limit established then in the Statutes and left the Presidency in 2018, after two terms.

The Basque businessman Antonio Garamendi benefited from this limitation and was the one who took over from Rosell, assuming the CEOE Presidency in 2018 and being elected last year for a second term.

Before the arrival of Rosell and Garamendi, the CEOE had three other presidents whose mandate was not limited: Carlos Ferrer Salat, José María Cuevas and Gerardo Díaz Ferrán. Of them, the one who was at the controls of the business organization the longest was José María Cuevas, no less than 23 years.