Sánchez reinforces the economic area with four vice presidents and two new ministries: Housing and Digital Transformation
MADRID, 20 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Monday that the Ministry of Economy, led by Nadia Calviño, will also assume the responsibilities of Commerce, until now included in the Ministry of Industry.
As the president has advanced in an institutional statement to inform about the composition of the new Government, Calviño will repeat as first vice president of the new Executive and will be at the head of the Ministry that will now be called ‘Economy, Commerce and Business’ – previously ‘Affairs Economics and Digital Transformation’–.
Therefore, what was the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in the last legislature is now left with the powers of Industry and Tourism. At the head of this Department will be the current president of Hispasat and former mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, thus taking over from Héctor Gómez.
For his part, the until now Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, will occupy the Digital Transformation portfolio, until now integrated into the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
As the new Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Sánchez has chosen Elma Saiz, who currently served as Minister of Economy and Finance in the autonomous government of Navarra.
The Galician Yolanda Díaz, leader of Sumar, will repeat as second vice president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy. Looking ahead to the new legislature, there are several challenges that Díaz will face from her Labor portfolio, many committed to the pact between PSOE and Sumar for the constitution of the new Government.
Teresa Ribera will continue to be one of the pillars in this new Government of Pedro Sánchez at the forefront of environmental and energy matters, remaining as third vice president and minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
María Jesús Montero will repeat as Minister of Finance and Public Function in the new coalition government between the PSOE and Sumar and will also hold the fourth vice presidency of the Government. From the Treasury, it will have to undertake, after three years of suspended fiscal rules, the reduction of the deficit and public debt.
On the economic level, Sánchez has appointed Óscar Puente, former mayor of Valladolid and current deputy in Congress, as the new Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility. In addition, he maintains the current Government spokesperson and Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, in the Council of Ministers, who now holds a new portfolio: Housing and Urban Agenda. In addition, the Valencian Luis Planas will repeat as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in the new Government of Pedro Sánchez.
During the institutional statement, Sánchez pointed out that this is an Executive with a “marked feminist accent and a high political profile” and “continuist” in the economic area.
The president has also stressed that the new priorities for the legislature, such as housing and digital transformation, explain the creation of two Ministries to assume these powers, previously located in the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and in the Ministry of Public Affairs. Economic, respectively.
Sánchez has indicated that the new Government “will prioritize dialogue and negotiation in a key legislature for social and territorial cohesion”, with ministers who have the “suitable profiles” to address the different challenges, many of them “forged” in the “autonomous” and municipal policy.
Among the Government’s priorities for this legislature, Sánchez has cited those of completing the socioeconomic modernization of Spain, transforming its productive fabric “in a green and digital key” to move it towards full employment; the reinforcement of the Welfare State and the improvement of purchasing power; and promote access to housing, “consolidating this constitutional right as the fifth pillar of the Welfare State.”
