Spain’s digital lobby calls for a ‘State Pact for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ between political forces

Spain is facing a general election on 23 July, and the digital lobby is worried about the potential government shift from left to right and the digital policy reforms that would come from it.

The digital lobby, under the Spanish Association for a Digital Economy (Adigital), made up of over 550 companies, including Inditex, CaixaBank, Bolt, Ikea, Spotify, and Microsoft, as well as small and medium enterprises, is asking the political forces to sign a ‘Pact for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’. The pact should signal a commitment to a shared digital agenda in the upcoming years. The ‘State Pact’ proposal aims to promote digitalisation, entrepreneurship, and public-private partnerships. Specifically, it highlights the success of the left-wing government’s approach over the last four years as pioneering and supportive of innovation and development in cooperation with state institutions. For example, Spain was the first EU country to pass an AI regulatory sandbox and a Startup Law.

Worries about the potential right-wing approach also come as the right-wing government in regions of Castille and León rejected proposals by the socialists to create a Digital Divide Observatory and the urgent drafting of a Digital Empowerment Plan for Castilla and León 2025 and the Castilla and León Digital Strategy 2030.