The possibility that Catalan companies and their strategic financial entities such as Banc de Sabadell and Caixabank return to Catalonia encouraged by the pact between the PSOE and the Catalan independentists threatens to open a new front of confrontation of the Valencian Community with the Government and with Catalonia . Furthermore, with the collaboration of the Valencian employers' associations. That is to say, I don't like that possibility at all. Everything has an explanation.
The economic crisis of 2008, and the disastrous (and in some cases criminal) management of the Valencian PP, ended up collapsing the entire Valencian financial system. In a few years, the third and fourth state savings banks - Bancaixa and Caja del Mediterráneo - collapsed and shortly after, the Banco de València. While other autonomies maintained their financial muscle, the Valencians lost everything.
In 2011, Banc de Sabadell absorbed Caja del Mediterráneo and in 2012 Caixabank took over Banco de València, the entity that had been a key instrument of the Valencian bourgeoisie. Bancaja, as is already known, ended up integrated into Bankia. The sense of orphanhood of the Valencian employers' associations was enormous, and politically the Valencian inability to sustain a system that had functioned successfully for almost a century was confirmed.
After the events of 2017 in Catalonia, Sabadell and Caixabank decided to move their headquarters to the Valencian Community, the first to Alicante and the second to València. That decision, in which Ximo Puig put a lot of interest, had a great soothing effect on the Valencian employers' associations, which recovered a certain geographical proximity with two entities that have ended up being fundamental in the Valencian commercial field and also social and cultural. Without being the same as in the past, both Caixabank and Banc de Sabadell have become "Valencianized" in terms of business culture.
For this reason, the first one who did not like the possibility of these companies returning to Catalonia was Ximo Puig. "That is part of the decision-making capacity of companies, not of governments," he said in clear opposition to a possibility that would once again leave the Valencian Community without being the headquarters of any large financial entity.
The Minister of Finance and spokesperson for the Valencian Executive, Ruth Merino, warned that for her part, if among the measures implemented to encourage the return of companies to Catalonia "the Government of Spain carries out some action" for which the Valencian Community feel "offended", the central Executive will have the Consell "in front of them".
In this regard, and asked if the Consell had debated any measure to encourage companies to maintain their headquarters in the Community, Merino stressed that the Valencian government is working to "make a community attractive for investment" thanks to tax reductions. and to measures to "streamline the Administration and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles."
In that sense, Merino affirmed that the companies that moved to the Community "within the exercise of their freedom" will find, "now more than ever", "an opportunity to come, grow, create wealth and feel well received and with the doors open." "Companies, in the exercise of their freedom, will do what they consider, but in the Community they will feel welcomed," he concluded.
One fact remains to be told: in the north of Castellón there are many Catalan companies that have set up their headquarters. The number is unknown, but they are not few. Will these companies return to Catalonia as well? We will know shortly.
