Antoni Cañete, officially re-elected as president of Pimec
The manager renews his position as head of the employers' association for another four years after being the only candidate in the elections
The current president of the Pimec employers' association, Antoni Cañete (Barcelona, 1963), will repeat in the position for the next four years, being the only candidate presented. The elections of the employers' association, which were called for February 27, will not need to be held in the end because no other candidate has been presented. This Wednesday, the electoral board has ratified the reelection of Cañete after completing the procedures established by the electoral regulations and the statutes of Pimec.
Cañete faces the next four years with a renewed board, with 30% of new additions and complying with the criterion of 40-60% gender parity, according to the employers' association. Among the new faces are prominent figures such as Albert Sumarroca (Bodegues Sumarroca), Clara Gómez (Grupo Clade), Dolores Liria (College of Psychologists of Catalonia), Elena Puigdevall (Catalan Union of Hospitals), Gabriel Jané (Barcelona Abierta), Jordi Mateu (Summa Branding) Viader (Frit Ravich), Marta Vallès (Vottun), Meritxell Ruiz (Christian School Foundation of Catalonia), Pau Vila (LC Paper) and Ruben Bonet (Fractus).
Goals
During the four years of Antoni Cañete's first term, who in 2021 succeeded the historic president of the employers' association, Josep González, Pimec can boast of some milestones. The most claimed by the employers' association, and in the words of Cañete himself, "historic milestone", is the entry of the employers' association into the state Economic and Social Council (CES), an organisation representing the most representative employers' associations and unions. A "long journey" that the president of Pimec described in this way in an interview in the ARA newspaper in June 2024: "For the first time since the beginning of democracy, SMEs will have their own voice in the areas of institutional representation."
In his words, being part of the CES "allows that when there are laws such as the one on late payment, if SMEs had had their own voice there would have been a report saying that freedom of birth will mean that there will be an abuse of position by whoever has the dominant position." But that did not come out and, therefore, Cañete adds: "As they did not have their own voice, many of the laws approved have not taken into consideration 99.8% of the country's companies and more than 70% of employment." Pimec closed 2024 celebrating 50 years of existence and announcing a budget for 2025 of 24.5 million euros.
Future
Although the first meeting of the new Pimec board will not be held until February 25, when the strategic lines for the next four years will be set, the employers' association has some key issues, which Cañete already listed during the Christmas breakfast: the reduction of the working day that the Spanish government has promoted, its crusade with excessive bureaucracy and his concern about the BBVA takeover bid for Sabadell.
With this second term, and according to the statutes of the SME employers' association, Cañete will exhaust the limit of years for the presidency of the employers' association, provided that there are no changes in the statutes, as has been done in the Madrid-based CEOE or in Foment del Treball, where the year limit has been eliminated.