News

In an op-ed published Sunday 29 March in Abc newspaper, Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Galán reiterated the company’s commitment to society in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. A commitment that materializes in two aspects: protecting people and safeguarding jobs.

The first one is to the safety of employees who, often on the front line, are keeping basic services up and running or providing support to those who are doing so.

The second commitment is to the economy: in Galán’s opinion, companies — especially those in the industries that drive the rest of the economy — must maintain and even accelerate planned investments, as this is “the best way to support activity and employment among our thousands of suppliers, many of which are small and medium enterprises, and to bring about a faster recovery as soon as we overcome this situation.”

It is now more than ever when companies must prove our ability to contribute to society, as essential actors in an economy that wants to be social and market.

He also said that each country’s individual solutions are not enough, as they do not have “the capacity to face up by themselves to the effects of this crisis on global supply and demand that experts are predicting”, which makes it necessary to develop coordinated strategies.

“A Europe that shows solidarity, capable of presenting a united response to the crisis, is the best guarantee of leaving the recession behind soon, relaunching the economy and, more importantly still, proving that the common European project is there for its citizens when they need it most.”

This is needed to attempt to mitigate as much as possible the immense impact that the health crisis is having on countries’ GDP and, above all, on employment.

Lastly, Galán struck an optimistic tone, saying that we will beat the pandemic thanks to “the capacity for sacrifice and commitment of all the people who are making it possible for our country’s basic services to continue operating and, in particular, those fighting the pandemic on the front line, for whom there can never be enough recognition of their laudable generosity.” “All of them,” he concluded, “are today, and will be forever more, our anonymous heroes.”