Cuerva fights Garamendi: he rejects the international position at CEOE and launches his candidacy for Cepyme with support from the leadership

Gerardo Cuerva will give the battle to Antonio Garamendi. The president of the CEOE tried to convince him yesterday not to run for re-election this year, offering him in exchange an international position in the employers’ association, but the leader of Cepyme He rejected the offer and informed his leadership that he would present his candidacy.. A decision that was applauded among its people, as revealed to EL MUNDO by sources present at the meeting of the Executive Committee held yesterday afternoon by the employers’ association of small and medium-sized companies.

“The president of the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises, Gerardo Cuerva, has announced before the Executive Committee of the organization his intention to present his candidacy in the next elections of the Confederation.” In a brief statement, Cepyme transferred Cuerva’s decision at the last minute yesterday.

“Gerardo Cuerva was elected president of Cepyme in the electoral General Assembly held in 2021, although he had held this position since 2019, after the appointment of the previous president, Antonio Garamendi, as president of CEOE,” they recalled from the business organization.

Hours before, Garamendi and Cuerva had held a meeting in which the president of CEOE officially confirmed to his vice president that he wants his replacement as president of Cepyme and that he already has a candidate to succeed him. According to sources familiar with the content of the conversation, to try to convince him to retire, the Basque businessman offered him the position of president of CEOE Iberoamerica.

But Cuerva rejected the offer, according to the same sources. The man from Granada, who does not receive a salary from Cepyme, already holds a position in the Business Council of Latin America (CEAL), as responsible for Iberian Chapterwith which you are comfortable. His aspiration is to continue leading the SME employers’ association in Spain and he conveyed this to his people, announcing that he will present his candidacy in the 2025 elections.

The elections do not yet have a date, so the call is not official. But Gerardo Cuerva’s movement is key because it indicates that he is not going to retire and will continue “defending the interests of small and medium-sized companies” despite having verified that the president of the CEOE, on which Cepyme organically depends, already He does not want him in the position because he has lost confidence in him after months of clashes between the two.

Since the elections have not been officially called in Cepyme, Cuerva cannot ask for the formal support of its partners. However, the decision that was transferred to the Committee yesterday was applauded by the leadership. “Everyone applauded and there was even banging on the tables”say sources present at the business conclave.

However, the support of small and medium-sized business owners for Cuerva has a double motivation. On the one hand, the management of the until now president of Cepyme has been openly approved by the business leadership, also in CEOE. And on the other hand, many in the employers’ association do not share Garamendi’s maneuver because they consider that Provoking an internal crisis in the confederation at this time harms business interests.

The moment is delicate, internally and externally. Relations with the Government and, especially, with the second vice president, Yolanda Diazthey are not in good condition. The rejection of the employers’ association to the reduction of the working day and the foreseeable refusal to the new increase in the minimum wage, which is precisely being negotiated this afternoon, has blown up the tripartite social dialogue.

For this reason, employers are in favor of solving the crisis within the employers’ organization “as soon as possible.” They ask for a “consensual solution.” “This is not the time,” insist the sources consulted at the CEOE. Although many, especially those closest to Garamendi, understand that the president has lost confidence in Cuerva after several disagreements, especially since the publication of the manifesto against government interventionism by Cepyme in July 2024, they consider that the problems must be solved internally and not air it out, as is happening these days.