The government’s tantrum with the Ferrovial case and the demagogy with which the political establishment of the left is acting is already bordering on the tints of the ‘tambourine country’ from which we have wanted so much to flee in our external image, especially thanks to the businessmen who go out to risk it because the internal market is too small for them and they do things well. If Sánchez also allows himself to be dragged along on this issue by a radicalized left that has failed resoundingly in his four years of co-governance -you only have to look at the ‘only if it is yes’- and tries to ideologize the case, with the nuances that are I want to add, it can be very expensive. It is not very encouraging for the legal stability that Moncloa ‘sells’ to hear how its government partners are willing to twist the law and the model of free enterprise that prevails in the Constitution to make the ‘enemy’ Del Pino bend the knee, because They can’t and don’t know how to do it any other way. The company’s decision can be good, bad or regular, but it has been taken by a board of directors with the freedom and protection granted by Law, and thinking about manipulating the system to avoid it is close to decisions from the last century typical of very undemocratic extremist regimes.
One of the first quick polls published this weekend warns that there is a majority close to half of Spaniards who see the company’s decision justified, because it will be good for their interests, despite the fact that it is bad news for the economy. Spanish and for the image of Spain. Although it is a minimal survey and the politicians are blinded by the elections, perhaps it would be good to do an examination of conscience in Moncloa of what has been done wrong in the face of businessmen, or everything that has been legislated by decree without take them into account. If, instead of that, the situation is set on fire with the dissemination of the contracts that the company has obtained for public works -with good coverage and in the face of the competition- or it is charged with disqualifications against the person of its leader, whose activity it supports ( and will continue to do so) to thousands of families in Spain, is entering into an unreason that goes beyond common sense.
Del Pino is not going to take his personal assets outside nor is he going to stop paying taxes; nor is the activity of the Spanish subsidiaries going to stop paying their rates, taxes, payroll, taxes and invoices in Spain, even though the horrible nature of their activity and their future depends on the contracts they have abroad. Ideologizing the subject and personalizing the reproaches in the mouth of a president of the Government, in addition to being out of place, only persecuting citizens and avoiding the responsibility that public management can have in the most tacky case. And that people love to see and do not give votes.
If we put ourselves in the position of someone who has to look for the most efficient, safe and cheap financing to move forward with their company all over the world, with an open mind and objectively, within the European Union -we are all Europeans-, no It is difficult to understand that there is some fear of political instability in Spain, both past and future. Whatever the result of the general elections at the end of the year, one can only think that the country will be led for the next four years by a coalition of one of the two majority parties -PP and PSOE- with the extreme right or with the extreme left, and that is not encouraging for those who have to play their money and avoid million-dollar political risk premiums. It goes without saying that this process, in thousands of town halls and in the autonomous governments, can still lead to more grotesque situations, such as those seen in Castilla y León, or the simple lack of Budgets in the Community of Madrid, of which no one remembers.
Of course, Spain is an advanced democracy and, more or less, stable; And it is true that the macroeconomy is not doing as badly as predicted. No one doubts that. But to deduce from this that regulations will not arise that will directly reduce the risk and the economic activity of many businessmen who are embarking on an investment maelstrom sponsored by the technological and environmental revolution that we are experiencing, is to err on the side of the unwary. Taxes on banks and electricity companies because they have earned a lot of money with the war are not sustained as an argument and their legal construction will generate an avalanche of lawsuits that can be very expensive for the public treasury. That if, when those who have imposed it are no longer in politics. And although I could argue in favor of these two taxes, imposing them to alleviate the high cost of inflation and rates in the pocket of individuals, without having deflated the personal income tax rates first, is highly illogical.
It is more serious when we come to the tax on great fortunes, a substitute for the Wealth Tax of more than dubious legal construction, little collecting power and thought only to make life a little bitter for the president of the Community of Madrid and her tax benefits. . Even the writers of the white paper on tax reform opted not to maintain a tax that could be clearly confiscatory. But if it had to be done and, knowing that it is the State that removes and adds taxes, it could have been done following his advice and avoiding comparative grievances between Autonomous Communities, instead of throwing down the middle street with a new ‘alternative’ tax ‘to Heritage, which in addition to lacking its own taxable event -it is the same in both cases-, threatens the financial autonomy of the autonomies recognized in such important Constitutional Court rulings as the one that limited the Statute of Catalonia in 2010.
To finish off the job, Sánchez heated up his tantrum against Ferrovial with the rule that Podemos asked him to impose parity on the boards of directors of large companies, something that is not clearly understood or can be applied improvised in response to a case concrete. It is evident and the constitutional endorsement of positive discrimination against women must be defended without any doubt, in a macho society that comes from a world dominated by men in which women have had to endure (and still endure) that does not respect article 14 of the Constitution. But it is the endorsement of the TC itself that recognizes that there is no clear criterion in the doctrine in this regard and warns that the proportionality of the specific measure of positive discrimination that is introduced must always be analyzed, so as not to violate the right to equality itself. in different situations. Distinguishing and valuing merit and ability in different situations is also equality; and not doing it because of a misunderstood feminism or machismo in the heat of the electoral battle, can do greater damage than the evil that one wants to avoid.
It is not surprising that more and more people think that the government has gone too far in its crusade against Ferrovial and the Del Pino family. If announcing an important decision on public spending or economic management every weekend from here until the end of the 2023 electoral journey is a stable framework, may God come and see. And if each time we get closer to the management of fundamental rights, even worse. Especially with an extreme left party in government for whom the real problem is not that Ferrovial leaves, what they hate is that businessmen earn money in themselves, even if that is the engine that moves a country and the process from which we eat all and with which their public salaries are paid.
