The PSOE and Junts pact for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez includes a plan to try to convince the companies that fled Catalonia in 2017 to return. Among them are the two most emblematic banks in the region, CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell, which moved their headquarters to Valencia and Alicante, respectively, six years ago. Neither of them currently considers the option of going back on that decision.
“We don’t have it on the table,” say the sources consulted after the agreement was signed. Directors of both entities had already spoken publicly before the agreement in this regard and today they do not want to go further. Unlike other leaders like Juan José Brugerapresident of the real estate company Colonial, who also left Catalonia after 1-O and now does not rule out any option. “We will wait for the plan to come out, we will study it and make decisions accordingly,” he said yesterday during the presentation of the firm’s results, shortly after the signing between Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont.
Beyond Brugera, in the business world the pact has been received with a certain coldness. Six years ago, the sovereign challenge caused thousands of companies to leave Catalan territory and exposed companies to a tension that they do not want to repeat again.. They feel singled out for a political issue that does not concern them. There is discomfort and they do not believe that the content of the agreement is concrete or definitive to reverse the situation. “Nothing has changed”they say on condition of anonymity.
In his opinion, the document presented yesterday by the new members of the legislature is neither concrete nor precise. There are no specific measures, just the outline of an intention. “The essential elements of a plan will be addressed to facilitate and promote the return to Catalonia of the headquarters of companies that changed their location to other territories in recent years,” reads the signed document.
For some leaders, this invitation reminds them of others that have been made in recent years by the Catalan business community and institutions such as Foment del Treball, whose president, J.osep Sánchez Book, has repeatedly asked “basic consensus” to the Generalitat and the Government to achieve the return of Catalan companies.