On the board of the new Government, Nadia Calviño continues to be the queen of the economic area, while María Jesús Montero is well placed to replace her if the first vice president returns to her beloved Brussels, while two new bishops appear, the Catalan Jordi Hereu and the Navarrese Elma Saiz, and the veteran José Luis Escrivá changes pensions for algorithms.
In short, more evolution than revolution in the economic ministries, although the entire operation is conditioned by the possible departure of Calviño to preside over the European Investment Bank (EIB). She continues as first vice president and with similar powers, given that although she loses digitalization and telecommunications, she gains trade. She will therefore continue to direct the economic area, while in Brussels she will try to close the pending issues of the Spanish presidency of the EU, such as the fiscal rules applicable from January.
Its future would have to be decided on December 8 when the president of the EIB is elected. We use the conditional because Belgium, the country leading the process, has already opted for a delay on previous occasions. And the duel is close between the two big favorites. On the one hand, Calviño, now reinforced by explicit German support; and on the other, the Danish Margrethe Vestager, the figure who is supposed to have inspired the Borgen series, and who gained prestige as curator of the competition.
In any case, the EIB expects a new president for January 1, which is when, if Calviño is the winner, she would leave the Government, forcing a more or less profound remodeling. A change for which Montero would be well placed to go from the fourth vice presidency to the first and an Escrivá who could be available for an eventual jump to Economy.
The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, maintains her powers intact, and adds the fourth vice presidency. “It is a show of support for her work,” her team says without wanting to speculate about future movements. In any case, she will have to approve the new budgets and control the deficit. Something that will not be easy, once Pedro Sánchez has already announced that some aid such as the reduction in VAT on food will be extended until the summer. In addition, he expects the debt reduction to the autonomous communities, already promised to Catalonia and which must also be applied, in one way or another, to the rest.
One of the new ones is the former mayor of Barcelona and until now president of Hispasat, Jordi Hereu. The PSC quota, which has been reduced to him personally, and to a ministry, Industry, which seems to be the PSC's favorite, or the one with which it always settles. He must develop the Industry law, one of the commitments with Brussels pending to be fulfilled. He inherits a ministry with four Pertes, but cut from the commerce powers, which pass into the hands of Calviño.
For his part, Escrivá leaves pensions and Social Security to deal with digitalization and telecommunications. Two areas that Economy transfers to him, and predictably, although it is not confirmed, accompanied by the two associated Pertes, that of the chip and that of the language. The minister who likes to debate on social networks and outline on napkins his formulas to guarantee the sustainability of pensions, will now be in charge of developing projects in microelectronics and semiconductors, the deployment of 5G and the AI strategy.
Her successor at the head of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration is Elma Saiz, who arrives from Navarra, to check whether pensions are as sustainable as Escrivá claims, and to develop what remains pending in the pension reform, especially retirement. partial.
