Barely two weeks after the first family photo of the new coalition Government, Pedro Sánchez already has to think about a remodeling. The appointment – although expected – of Nadia Calviño as president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) will leave the first vice-presidency vacant, which is associated with the powers of Economy. The role of the highest economic authority of the Executive remains vacant, neither more nor less. The President of the Government knows who it will be, or is clear about who it should be, at least that is what his team reports, but he does not give any clues. The options include promoting someone from his cabinet or a signing that provides prestige and new air.
Those are the options. In case of opting for an internal solution, one of the options could be that María Jesús Montero, who in addition to remaining at the head of the Ministry of Finance has been promoted in this legislature to fourth vice president, assumes an economic macro portfolio that centralizes these policies and promotes to first vice president. In this way she would be above Yolanda Díaz, who is second vice president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy.
Because what Sánchez is clear about is that the economic authority in the Government must be socialist. Hence the need to put a figure above the leader of Sumar.
Another possibility would be that the replacement was José Luis Escrivá, who has been kept in the Government structure with an a priori minor responsibility -Digital Transformation-, separated precisely from Calviño’s powers, after having assumed ownership of the Department of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. His managerial profile could also serve as a counterweight to Sumar’s leader within the bicolor Executive with the PSOE.
Nor is the scenario ruled out that Calviño’s successor is not currently sitting in the Council of Ministers. The pools begin, with names of members of other socialist executives. The lies, because information is scarce. The sources consulted suggest that, in any case, Sánchez already knows who he wants it to be, but that he does not give any clues about it, and that a profile is needed that is recognized by Europe and has dialogue with Brussels, as was the case with the first vice president.
“Fortunately we have, both inside and outside the Government, powerful economists, men and women, who from the point of view of the progressive sphere of how we understand the economy are going to continue with that work,” Sánchez pointed out in an interview on Antena 3 in which he did not He ruled out neither of the two scenarios, neither that of internal movements nor that of foreign signings.
Sánchez’s approach is that Calviño’s replacement does not occur immediately. The planned roadmap, at least until today, is to do it in the first part of 2024. The president himself stated this Thursday before the appointment was confirmed that “a few months” would still have to pass for the transfer to materialize because it still She has to be officially appointed to an EIB Board appointment, although her term is scheduled to begin on 1 January. The calendar is to be refined.
The clashes between Díaz and Calviño have been multiple and public in recent years due to their deep ideological differences. The key to the latest clash has been the reform of the unemployment benefit to gradually reduce its collection, making it compatible with the receipt of a salary, for which the second vice president has accused the first vice president of “proposing a model of cuts” and of “wanting punish the workers.”
They have also maintained opposing positions due to the change in the regulations that regulate the labor market, the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage, the Rider Law that has regulated the activity of delivery people on digital home delivery platforms and that of domestic workers for who have the right to unemployment and cannot be fired without justification. The representative of the minority coalition partner has even accused the representative of the socialist wing of applying “neoliberal” recipes.
In addition to exercising control of economic policy, Calviño had become one of the main squires of the socialist leader, shaping his purely technical profile towards a more political one. Particularly famous was an intervention last year by Congress in which it discredited Vox for saying that it did not know anyone who would benefit from the Executive’s aid: “Do you not know anyone who benefits from public health, from free public transportation? “, of aid to the self-employed, of ERTE, of ICO guarantees, of the minimum living income, of aid to families who have poor children? But how can it be that I don’t know any real Spaniards?”
In this new legislature the president has formed a Government for “total war” with the opposition, without neglecting the technical, but with a very political profile. The replacement must fit into those parameters because, in addition, the coming months will not be economically easy because, to begin with, the flexibility that Brussels allowed on issues such as debt as a result of the Covid pandemic ends.