Sánchez Llibre obtains the support of two-thirds of the votes to lead Foment again

BarcelonaFew surprises. Josep Sánchez Llibre has collected 300 endorsements out of the minimum 50, representing about 1,800 votes, two-thirds of those from the general assembly. This will allow him to lead a third term at the head of Foment del Treball, until 2030. The elections, which were supposed to be in July, have been moved forward to May 18,, the day on which the fact of there being no other candidacy means he can be proclaimed president by the general assembly. One of the main objectives of the new term will be to combat labor absenteeism, with the commitment to prepare a white paper with proposals involving all economic and social agents. Another of the priorities will be to reduce tax pressure, he explained during an event at the Reial Cercle Artístic de Barcelona, with the attendance of more than 60 businessmen and executives who support him. The period for submitting candidacies ended this Friday.

Sánchez Llibre has presented his program based on improving competitiveness and productivity, which are essential elements for increasing salaries and reducing social inequalities. He has advocated for competitive taxation, so that in Catalonia in the next four years there will be "fewer taxes for companies and families." And he recalled the expression "tax hell," which he used in 2024 after presenting the Green Paper on Taxation in Catalonia, and which political forces such as the PP have adopted, and he has downgraded it to "excessive tax pressure."

and that political forces such as the PP have adopted, and has reduced it to "excessive tax pressure".

White paper on absenteeism

At the same time, he has highlighted that an important point of his program is to combat absenteeism at work. "Unfortunately, Spain is today the leading country in the European Union in absenteeism", with 5.5%, when the community average is 2.5%, he explained. In 2019 Spain was slightly above the average and the cost it represented was 16 billion euros, while in 2025 it was 33 billion, which are paid half by Social Security and companies.

The objective, he said, is to reduce it from the current 5.5% to 4%, to bring it to the level of 2019, and absences would be reduced by 300,000 people per day and costs from 33 billion to 16 billion. He announced the preparation of a white paper with proposals for the rest of the social and economic agents to join, from unions and companies to administrations and universities. He has combined this with demanding more public health workers to attend to absences and provide more facilities to mutual accident insurance companies.

Another of the points of the program is the objective of ensuring that everyone has decent housing and adequate mobility, he explained. He has defended private property, which, in his opinion, will foster investment in real estate. Sánchez Llibre has denounced that the government's action is currently going in the opposite direction. In this regard, he proposes more public supply and a "less interventionist" policy by the executive of Salvador Illa and also by that of Pedro Sánchez. He also recalled the complaint about the deficit in the execution of investments, especially by the State. He has also opted for extending the life of nuclear power plants so that companies have competitive energy and for dual vocational training, among other points.

This third term to which Sánchez Llibre is running is possible after the statutes were modified in 2024 of this employers' association to lift the term limit, established until then at two consecutive terms. In the 2022 elections, Sánchez Llibre collected 350 of the minimum 50 endorsements required, which represented around 76% of the possible votes.