Antonio Garamendi, president of the CEOE, has been overwhelmed by the support that the organization has offered him before the start of this year’s Employers’ Assembly . Before saying a single word, the attendees in the room rose to their feet and gave him a long applause lasting more than two minutes. Garamendi reacted with tears as he was told “don’t cry, president.”

” Thank you very much. We will comment on it when I finish my speech at the closing of the Assembly, but there has been an injustice . When you do not want to interpret what you say, there is nothing to do,” explained Garamendi before the almost 490 members who attend these moments via telematics to the Annual Assembly.

He has thus referred to the misinterpretation made of the statements he made on a radio last week, which only transpired that the pardons would be well received if they served to normalize relations in Catalonia.

Taken out of context
“These words were taken out of context, in a long interview of more than half an hour,” he said. Garamendi has been particularly hurt because he has always defended the unity of Spain, compliance with the law, the Constitution and an unwavering defense of the Monarchy.

And he remarked that the clarifications he has made all these days, after that misinterpretation of his statements, are of no use. “We will speak clearly of what we have always said in the CEOE”, in reference to the conference with which the Assembly would close.

Together, all the territories
And Garamendi has kept his word. At the end of his speech, he has once again insisted for those who want to listen to him and not misinterpret that “together, all the territories, we will go further” , he concluded by saying. But first, he has insisted for the eleventh time on the three principles that drive the actions of the CEOE: Independence, Sense of State and Institutional Loyalty .

To end his speech, the president of the CEOE has again explained his position on pardons. “I really appreciate your support very much, really. Because I have spent a few days, honestly very bad on a subject that I consider deeply unfair .”

” Those who know me, like you, know what I have always defended in the CEOE, what unites us in the CEOE, ” he said. “We work independently, we say and defend what we think, but always with a sense of the State, with what we want for our country, even if we can be wrong,” he commented, to remember that in any case, they always explain their positions.

A sense of state that, Garamendi has qualified, means working within the framework of the Constitution, in the regime of the parliamentary monarchy as a great model of the country. “It must be said that Spain is among the 20 most democratic countries in the world and that of them, eight or more are parliamentary monarchies,” he remarked.

Which means, according to the opinion of the president of the Spanish businessmen, to be subject to the rule of law and the defense of the rule of law . “What happens in Spain depends on popular sovereignty, on what all Spaniards decide,” he said in front of the nearly 500 representatives of the organizations included in the CEOE. And he has returned to charge against those who have preferred to keep the interpretation of his statements. “Although there are people who insist on saying what we do not say, ” he said.

Unity has been a word reiterated by Garamendi throughout the closing speech before the CEOE Assembly. “Unity is that it gives us the strength in the CEOE, to move Spain forward . ”

But, always with institutional loyalty, he has insisted. “It is the key, institutional collaboration, and we will continue working in this line, as far as we can go, even if the agreement is not finally reached,” he concluded.