Spain’s Textile Industry Rips PM Over ‘Ridiculous’ Plan to ‘Save Energy’ by Ditching Neckties

© Wikipedia / Jorge RoyanSilk ties rolled in a shop window display
Silk ties rolled in a shop window display - Sputnik International, 1920, 31.07.2022
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Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stumped observers after asking the office plankton masses and government bureaucrats to ditch the fashion accessory for the sake of energy savings. Spain and other European Union countries are facing record-high energy prices and the risk of shortages amid Brussels’ push to wean the bloc off of Russian supplies.
Spanish textiles, leather and accessories trade and business association Acotex has lashed out at Prime Minister Sanchez over his dubious appeal to Spaniards to go necktie-free.
In an address on Friday, a Sanchez appeared sans-tie to urge office workers, ministers and public sector officials not to wear a tie when it’s not necessary.
“I would like you to note that I am not wearing a tie,” the prime minister said at a news conference. “That means that we can all save from an energy point of view.” Sanchez did not specify exactly how ditching ties would cut Spain’s energy consumption, although sympathetic media suggested it may have something to do with lower air conditioning costs.

Acotex president Eduardo Zamacola blasted Sanchez over the “ridiculous” request, calling the situation “intolerable” and complaining that the prime minister was offering fashion advice “instead of supporting a sector which has suffered so much.”

Zamacola stressed that Sanchez’s advice is harmful to his industry, as many Spanish textile companies specialize in the manufacture and sale of male fashion accessories, including neckties. The industry, he said, has already been pummeled by coronavirus lockdowns, which forced office workers to stay at home for months at a time. On top of that, in recent months producers have faced a dramatic jump in electricity, materials and transport costs. Zamacola estimated that the sector has suffered a 57 percent drop in sales over the past two years.
Ordinary Spaniards didn’t seem all too impressed with their prime minister’s advice either, taking to Twitter to call him an “imbecile,” or accuse him of engaging in “tremendous idiocy.” Others suggested that energy savings should start at home – and that Sanchez should ditch his Super Puma helicopter to travel 25 km to get to work, and cut down on the use of his prime ministerial Falcon private jet.
Others accused the prime minister of generating “false controversy to distract people from real problems.” “This week, two ex-presidents of the [ruling] PSOE party were convicted, the president of the parliament has been dismissed for corruption, the Spanish language is facing eradication in Catalan schools…we have the highest inflation rate in 38 years. Let’s not waste another minute with Sanchez’s tie,” Catalonia lawmaker Antonio Gallego wrote.
The European Commission has called on bloc members to make a 15 percent cut to their natural gas consumption between August 2022 and March 2023 amid the energy price and availability crunch gripping the continent.
The Spanish government rejected the idea. “Whatever happens, Spanish families will not suffer gas or electricity cuts in their homes and the government will defend the position of Spanish industry, which has paid a special price to guarantee the security of supply,” Spanish minister for ecological transition Teresa Ribera said last week. “We want to help, but we also want to be respected,” she added, stressing Madrid would not tolerate a “disproportionate sacrifice” being “imposed on” it.
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Russia recently became Spain’s second-largest natural gas supplier after the United States as Algeria – ordinarily Madrid’s biggest source of gas, cut deliveries dramatically over the Sanchez government’s support for Morocco in the decades-old dispute between Algiers and Rabat over the Maghreb territory of Western Sahara. Russia is currently estimated to account for about 24 percent of Spain’s total demand, while US supplies account for 30 percent.
Brussels’ attempts to wean the EU off of Russian natural energy has helped to exacerbate months of rising prices and has sparked fear of winter shortages, particularly after most of the bloc banned Russian crude imports, Ukraine and Poland cut off key overland pipelines and Canada held off on the delivery of a turbine necessary for the operation of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has characterized Europe’s actions vis-à-vis Russian energy as “suicidal,” and warned that the region’s economic competitiveness would will collapse amid unbearably high regional energy prices.
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