Pedro Sánchez will carry out a government crisis before March 18

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, plans to carry out a government crisis probably during this weekend or next week to reach the federal committee of the party that he himself has convened for Saturday March 18 with the changes made, as explained by the Minister of Education and PSOE spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, in an interview on TVE.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
09 March 2023 Thursday 01:25
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Pedro Sánchez will carry out a government crisis before March 18

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, plans to carry out a government crisis probably during this weekend or next week to reach the federal committee of the party that he himself has convened for Saturday March 18 with the changes made, as explained by the Minister of Education and PSOE spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, in an interview on TVE.

It will be a government crisis forced by the departure of the Ministers of Industry, Reyes Maroto, and of Health, Carolina Darias, to be candidates for the mayoralty of Madrid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria respectively, and in principle it would be limited to those two names.

Asked if the changes are going to take place before the PSOE federal committee convened by Sánchez for March 18, the minister confirmed it with a brief "that's right." "I would like to give some news in this matter but you already know that these decisions only correspond to the President of the Government and he will address it when he considers it necessary," Alegría added without revealing more details. "We started that final stretch for the municipal and autonomous elections in some territories and in that federal committee we have to make the final approval of the lists of our candidates," explained the head of Education.

Although the last word rests with the head of the Executive, the forecast is that the changes will not go beyond the mere replacement of Darias and Maroto since Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1 and it does not seem It is fitting that the ministers are fresh off the ground, when they will be hosting their community club counterparts at meetings to be held during the European semester.

Of the team that was born in January 2020 after the 2019 elections and after the first pact to create a coalition government, 12 of the 22 ministers remain, after the successive changes that the president has made and that began with the departure of Salvador Illa as Minister of Health to be a candidate of the PSC for the Generalitat, in December 2020. This change allowed the entry of the Executive of Miquel Iceta as Minister of Territorial Policy, after the movement of Carolina Darias from that portfolio to that of Health.

Shortly after Illa, the departure was that of Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Unidas Podemos in the coalition, who left the Executive to stand in the early elections for the Community of Madrid in May 2021. He left the Second Vice Presidency in the hands of the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, after the socialist Carmen Calvo as first vice president, and the Ministry of Social Rights, in the hands of Ione Belarra, who would also replace him at the head of Podemos.

A movement that allowed the explosion of Díaz's political leadership and that has ended up breaking relations in this part of the coalition, between Podemos and the platform led by the Minister of Labor, who are debating whether to go together or separately to the next electoral appointments .

But it was in July 2021 when Sánchez faced a deep government crisis that would even lead him to modify the structure of the Government, going from four to three vice-presidencies and elevating Nadia Calviño as first vice-president and economy minister, and changing seven incumbents. ministerial offices as well as two portfolio exchanges.

At that time, political profiles such as Calvo as 'number two' or José Luis Ábalos as Minister of Transport left the Government, and others such as Félix Bolaños, who served as Secretary General of the Presidency, or Pilar Alegría and Isabel Rodríguez, entered, in addition to the notorious change in the direction of the Cabinet of Sánchez, which happened to occupy Óscar López after the departure of Iván Redondo.

Later, in December 2021, without much noise and alleging health problems, Manuel Castells left the Government and left the portfolio of Universities in the hands of Joan Subirats.

Thus, the only ministers who have held the entire legislature in their posts are, of those considered to be part of the United Podemos quota, the minister Alberto Garzón (Consumption), Irene Montero (Equality) and Díaz (Labor and Social Economy but with promotion to second vice president); and those of the socialist wing Calviño (Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and current first vice president), Teresa Ribera (Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge and third vice president), Margarita Robles (Defense), Fernando Grande-Marlaska (Interior), María Jesús Montero (Treasury and Public Function), Luis Planas (Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), Maroto (Industry, Commerce and Tourism), and José Luis Escrivá (Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations).

Since the first Cabinet that Sánchez formed in 2018 when he defeated Mariano Rajoy in the motion of no confidence, these last 'socialist' ministers have continued alongside the president in the Council of Ministers, except for the head of Inclusion, who arrived with the coalition government.