The 'silver chairs' blur the sectoral balance in the Chamber's plenary session

BarcelonaThe pyrrhic victory of the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, Josep Santacreu, in the vote to expand from two to 10 the vocal positions with the highest voluntary contribution – the so-called silver chairs” – has redefined the composition of the institution's plenary. By reducing the number of elected members by suffrage among the demarcation's entrepreneurs from 52 to 44, regulations require a change in the sectoral distribution of chamber seats.

Among the economically disadvantaged segments are commerce, hospitality, and parts of industry, as stated in the modification of the internal regulations approved on July 16. These losses have left sectors of the corporation most critical of the proposal dissatisfied: "The balance of sectoral representativeness, which should be the priority of the Chamber's plenary, is broken," assures Toni Fitó in conversation with ARA, the visible face of the chamber representatives who united in the last elections under the independentist candidacy Eines de País.

According to the document approved by the plenary – it should be recalled, with a tense tie at 29 that Santacreu's casting vote had to resolve – the 14 sectoral groups that made up the plenary will be reduced to 12. The new distribution is not discretionary but responds to calculations defined by chamber regulations: according to the electoral regime decree of the Chambers of Commerce, the distribution of seats in the corporations' plenaries must respond to various factors; among which the most significant is the contribution to the gross value added (GVA) of the demarcation for each economic segment.

With this redefinition, commerce, which occupied 10 chamber seats in the previous elections, will occupy eight. Hospitality is also affected, with one less member – it goes from the current four to only three –; as are services for sales or transport and communications. For its part, the extractive industries and energy group will join the metal industry group, losing a member along the way; as will happen with the paper and textile industry. On the contrary, financial intermediation – the group that contains the only elected seat held by the bank, occupied by Sabadell – construction, and chemistry will maintain their weight in the Chamber. It is worth noting that, like any reform of this scope in the Chamber, it still needs to be approved by the Generalitat, as the supervisory body of the corporation.

Reluctance with the 'silver chairs'

The sources from the plenary consulted by ARA regret this redefinition, given that the "sectoral balance" of the plenary will be subject to the companies that end up occupying the silver chairs. For now, it should be remembered, the two seats with the highest voluntary contribution are held by CriteriaCaixa, the investment arm of the La Caixa foundation, and by the RACC. Previously, however, companies of the size of Naturgy, CaixaBank, Indra or Abertis were present. From next year, observes Fitó, the 10 seats will be occupied by "companies with sufficient economic capacity to make an offer of 300,000 euros, which are normally concentrated in certain sectors of activity, far from the most atomized ones like commerce or catering".

The affected sectors lament the move. "It is not normal for representation to be bought in a public law corporation," criticizes Antoni Torres, former president of the Federation of Pharmacy Associations of Catalonia and a plenary member for the commercial heading. "Of the two of us in my heading, one will fall. The representation of my sector will decrease, and another will increase," adds the businessman, who is also a member of the Pimec board of directors. When consulted by this medium, the corporation insists that the new plenary "responds to the economic reality of the country".

The Chamber, it should be remembered, justified this decision as a move to balance the representation of large companies in the plenary, and to prevent them from being "underrepresented". In this regard, Torres urges the corporation's government to encourage these business profiles to opt for seats chosen by suffrage. "If you want more large companies in the plenary, make large companies run. If large companies take into account the needs of small ones, the small ones will vote for them," argues the member; who points to the electoral victories of firms like Ficosa or Saba as an example. "With the definition in hand, in 2023, 16 large companies ran, and 9 won. That is a pretty high percentage," adds Torres.

For its part, Fitó insists that the larger volume companies could have other ways of participating in the Chamber, even beyond the seats chosen by business vote. The Eines representative refers to the consultant members, a profile that allows access and voice in the plenary session, but does not grant a vote to the businesspeople who are part of it. Currently, the Barcelona corporation has 13, a little more than half of those it can appoint, up to 25. Among these seats are Juan José Brugera, president of the real estate company Colonial; or Pau Relat, president of MAT Holding and Fira de Barcelona. "If there are no more large companies among the consultant members, it is the responsibility of the executive committee," points out Fitó.

However, with a view to the next chamber elections, Eines already proposes reversing the reform of the silver chairs as one of its major battlehorses. "We will bring the point to our program, and we believe that the vast majority of the Catalan productive fabric shares it," announces Fitó.