He President of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, has criticized the “constant attack” on businessmen by certain members of the Government as part of a “discredit campaign” to the business world: “This week it was my turn”, he pointed out in reference to the salary he receives from employers, of about 380,000 euros per year.
In statements to Telecinco and Antena 3 collected by Europa Press, Garamendi has stated that his salary has not increased by 9%, but by 3%, the same percentage as the rest of the CEOE staff, and He has denied that he has to regularize his employment situation.
“It’s false. I don’t have to regularize anything at all. In Spain there are more than 200,000 people like me, which they have to pay twice to the Treasury. I am self-employed and I will continue to be so because businessmen cannot be in the General Regime”, she stressed.
“nor are they 400,000 euros and I have not raised 9% because it is not me, this is a matter of a private entity. The Board of Directors are 255 members and that is what has been approved. People can like it or not “, he has defended.
The Basque businessman believes that with everything that is being said about his salary in CEOE a “campaign” is being carried out to destroy him, but he has warned that he will go ahead, because “he is from the North and will endure.”
Government messages
“That the Government is sending divisive messages seems very serious to me. It is accusing itself with its finger and now it has touched me, because I am alone,” he denounced.
Regarding the criticisms of the president of the Confederation of Employers of Pontevedra (CEP), Jorge Cebreirosthat Garamendi’s salary does not seem “sensitive” to him and that this situation can “complicate” life for the business class, Garamendi has indicated that his salary “neither complicates nor uncomplicates.”
“Forgive the example, but this is like when there is a rape and they say that the girl was wearing a miniskirt. I do not accept an octopus as a pet,” he said.
Garamendi has insisted that his salary has been approved by the CEOE Board of Directors and that it is a decision made within a private organization. “The only thing missing was for the Government to have to decide what we have to be or say or decide for some to give their opinion on what is done right or wrong,” she pointed out.
More underground economy
Regarding the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) to 1,080 euros per month, which the CEOE has opposed, Garamendi has assured that it will not affect large companies but it will affect the self-employed and small companies, and has warned of that its rise will cause “more people to leave the legal field of employment”.
“Spain has 24% of the underground economy and the rest of Europe has 13%, I think it is something very serious, that we should attack. In Spain we need open jobs that are legal”, defended Garamendi, who recalled that his organization proposed an increase in the SMI for this year of 4%, up to 1,040 euros per month.
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“We are always going to negotiate with the Government. What seems incredible to me is that when you reach agreements you are a phenomenon and it turns out that the day you say no, because it is not good for Spain, you become a villain,” he added. .
Garamendi has reproached the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, for having “put in solfa” that the businessmen “They do everything wrong and against the most vulnerable”. “That is a lie. Vulnerable are the self-employed and small businessmen, who do not have unemployment,” she argued.