An ephemeral term of four years leading the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce is the poor balance of the Eines de País (Tools of the Country) candidacy after the elections held over the last few days, whose results were announced this Wednesday evening. Josep Santacreu's list has had an ample victory - 31 seats to 21 - over that headed by Mònica Roca and Toni Fitó, current president and vice president, and the change in the current corporation will be important, not so much in the ideological background of some of its members, but in the conception of the chamber as a body and in the business weighting of some of its members. As much as some have tried to present this outcome as a parallel to 2019, the situation has nothing in common with that Chamber vote, when the pro-independence candidacy endorsed by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and then headed by Joan Canadell achieved a victory against all odds, crushing the conservative establishment of the Upper Diagonal led by Carles Tusquets, current president of Trea Capital of Banco Mediolanum.
The defeat of the Roca-Fitó-Canadell triumvirate, although the two first-named managed to get elected in their respective categories, is especially painful not only because they lost, but also because they were not able to retain the votes they unexpectedly obtained four years ago. That is to say, their management has been rated poorly even among those who voted for Eines de País on that occasion, something that should also make the ANC reflect, since it has allowed itself to lose the reins of a body that just a few days ago it was taking for granted it would be capable of maintain. Thus, it carried out a massive mobilization campaign among those of its affiliates who had voting status for some of the chamber posts and the poor result is there for all to see. In this regard, it is more a defeat for those sponsored by the ANC and for the civil group itself, than for the independence movement as a whole, which, significantly, is also represented in the other candidacy.
The turnout was as ridiculous as it has usually been in the past, not reaching 3% of the census - 21,409 votes counting both remote and in-person modes - but the candidacy of Va d'Empresa, with a silent campaign that avoided statements to the media and public debates that could heat up the campaign, found its strategy worked and pulled off a victory. A key fact: the result of 31 to 21 is large enough for Eines de País to accept that a cycle has ended abruptly and that it has not been able to give continuity to its project, with the control of all the internal machinery, when it had everything in favour and the alternative candidacy had to be improvised, in part, at the last minute. Along the way, the outgoing leadership will have made mistakes and disappointed the sympathizers who entrusted it with their votes in 2019.
Josep Santacreu, 65 years old, born in Guissona, has a degree in Medicine from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and a doctorate in Business Administration and Management from the Politècnica (UPC). He also holds a diploma in Hospital Management and Business Administration and Management from ESADE. Until a few months ago he was the CEO of DKV Seguros and has served on the boards of trustees and advisory councils of numerous social foundations. In 2011 he was appointed vice-president of Femcat, an independent foundation formed largely by Catalan businesspeople and managers, with a pro-independence make-up, a body of which he has been a patron since its constitution in 2005. As a sovereignist lobby, it mobilized, for example, over the question of Catalonia's right to decide. Personalities about whom few would have doubts, like Miquel Martí, from Moventia; Eloi Planes, from Fluidra, or Josep Ametller, from Ametller Origen, among others, were in the candidacy, which also included entrepreneurs with an profile which in ideological terms could be considered more transversal. The new plenary session of the Chamber has to be constituted before November 15th.