At the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) held in Santiago de Compostela last September, Nadia Calviño (A Coruña, 1968) not only worked with her European counterparts to reach an agreement and sought support for her candidacy for the European Bank of Investments (EIB), but he had time to sit down with the protocol team and design the best distribution of attendees at the tables. The anecdote describes the personality of the person in charge of the Spanish economy for five years now that she is going to preside over the EIB and that has been characterized by hyperactivity in all areas.
He has been one of the people most trusted and loyal to President Pedro Sánchez. So much so that he is part of the scarce half-dozen faces that survive from that first Council of Ministers of June 2018. His orthodoxy has marked a good part of the economic policies, holding back the positions of the successive allies of the governments led by Sánchez. And she has done it without having a PSOE card.
The people closest to his team explain how he has been working with the same intensity until the last day, because – they say – he doesn't know how to do it any other way. That is why it is surprising how in 2019 – a few months after taking the reins of the ministry – she already opted for a powerful international position, that of managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Those who know her explain that she is convinced that if Spain wants to have options in large organizations, whoever should apply must have the rank of minister, at least. The truth is that Calviño has tried on several occasions until she finally got it with the EIB. For many years she worked in Brussels and longed to return to an international organization. It's like she's coming home.
Its image, in the successive Sánchez governments, has been that of the containment dam for the political demands of the allies, eternally dissatisfied. Perhaps if it were up to her, the measures against the pandemic in the harsh spring of 2020 would have been more lax, while now no one questions the suitability and success of the decisions made, such as guarantees for companies or temporary employment regulation files. .
The discussions with Podemos (now with Sumar) but also with other allies such as ERC or EH Bildu have been a constant. This same month, the existing discrepancies between Calviño and Yolanda Díaz regarding the new unemployment benefit surfaced. But in the end the pact route in the purest style of Brussels, of which she is an advanced disciple, has always prevailed. Disputes over the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), labor reform and rent management were heard.
Although she is always accused of being the most technocratic in the Government, Calviño has participated in popular consumer and general public debates that generate great headlines that are in tune with the left. This was the case when she criticized the high salaries of bankers or the low (or non-existent) remuneration of deposits by financial institutions. Although on many occasions they remained in statements and there was, for example, no control of the banking remunerations nor was any measure taken with the deposits.
Precisely, she is also one of those responsible for the largest bank merger operation in the history of Spain, when CaixaBank absorbed Bankia. An integration that leaves partially unfinished, since the State remains in the capital of the bank.
On the public level, Calviño is without a doubt the Minister of Economy who has granted the most interviews to the press in history. Although not always giving news. Prudence is another of her mottos. In addition, she has had overwhelming participation on social networks, in which she usually makes brief summaries of her interventions as the public servant that she is.
A feminist without nuances, she even refused to participate in a formal event in which it turned out that she was the only woman who appeared on the stage.
Graduated in Economics and Business Sciences and in Law (2001) from UNED, she is an official of the State Administration as a member of the body of Commercial Technicians and State Economists. Although she did not study protocol, she perfectly masters the situation and where and what each person should do. Also herself.
