The election of the president of the CES is still bogged down due to the lack of consensus
Ángel Víctor Torres (d), Minister Máñez, with union leaders Manuel Navarro and Inocencio González. /
The employers have the majority at the time that the Government's proposal declines, which initially had the support of the unions
One year after the talks began, and more than three months after the proposals of the different entities were presented, the Presidency of the Economic and Social Council (CES) still has no holder. The election remains bogged down and the Government has still not taken a step forward to appoint the components of this body before a vote that is not controlled, but which already seems definitely inclined towards the candidacy of the employers, the outgoing president of the CEOE-Tenerife , Jose Carlos Francisco.
After sounding out names from one side and the other, the person who could provoke consensus was finally found in Professor Gloria Rojas. The Government proposed her as an independent expert and with a "profile that beyond her professional prestige is aimed at obtaining unanimity," according to sources from the Executive. Faced with this initiative, the provincial employers gave the battle for lost and, although it was not the profile they were looking for, they were willing to give in their claims.
However, Francisco's departure from the CEOE-Tenerife meant a turnaround and the recomposition of pieces on stage. The Tenerife employers found the support of the Canarian Confederation of Entrepreneurs to make this Tenerife businessman president in the face of the immobility of the Ministry of Economy "which did not see them coming," says a member of the CES.
Different sources recognize in this sense that "it has not been negotiated well", especially because "the Government promised Rojas that it would be the only name on the table". Now, the option proposed to them is that the organizations themselves seek an agreement or that both candidacies vote because the Executive is not going to arbitrate this matter, which shows that "it got out of hand and they did not know how to react in time."
The general secretary of the UGT, Manuel Navarro, points out that, although his candidate was Gloria Rojas, "if it has already been decided and there is only one candidacy, we will seek unanimity" and, therefore, this organization will support Francisco. In this legislature, the vice-presidencies of the CES correspond to the employers' association and CC OO, but given that the president will, in all probability, be a businessman, UGT will claim the other vice-presidency "as a formula to balance forces," said Navarro .
For his part, the leader of CC OO, Inocencio González, has indicated that if the proposal is not Rojas, the union bodies will have to reposition themselves, because the decision they had adopted was to support this candidate. He points out that the position of the Economy Ministry has been to leave the search for an agreement to the four organizations. In his opinion, "the most important thing is that this matter be closed as soon as possible, because the Council cannot stop working."
The CES has been in an interim situation for more than a year, since the mandate ended in December 2020. Previously, the president, Blas Trujillo, had left office to direct the Ministry of Health. During this time, it has been the general secretary of the CCE, José Cristóbal García, who has held the position provisionally. The Department of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, headed by Elena Máñez, published at the beginning of December the dismissal of the members of the Council and established the deadline for the different organizations to offer their proposals to the plenary session, a body that finally has to appoint the president in a meeting that should have been held at the end of January or beginning of February.
