Antonio Cabrales presented his resignation this afternoon as director of the Bank of Spain, a few hours after his appointment by the Council of Ministers, according to sources close to the PP tell La Vanguardia. His appointment had been agreed, together with that of Judith Arnal, between the Government and the PP, in an agreement that avoided an institutional blockade like the one that occurred in the country's main judicial bodies.
The appointments of Cabrales and Arnal, former chief of staff of the Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, are intended to fill the posts of Carmen Alonso, proposed by the PSOE, and Fernando Eguidazu, appointed by the PP, whose mandates expired beginning of February. After the resignation of Cabrales, the PP will proceed to designate another professional of recognized prestige as director of the Bank of Spain, prior agreement with the Ministry of Economy.
Cabrales's decision, announced by El Mundo, comes shortly after it was leaked that he had signed a document in April 2018 in support of Clara Ponsatí, MEP and former Minister of Education of the Generalitat, who at that time had moved to Scotland to teach at the University of Saint Andrews, where she was a professor.
The Council of Ministers this Tuesday highlighted the extensive curriculum of Cabrales. He is a PhD in Economics from the University of California and a professor at the Carlos III University, as well as a professor at University College London and Pompeu Fabra University. He has also been executive vice president of the European Economic Association, former president of the Spanish Economic Association, honorary member of the Econometric Society and Rei Jaume I Economics Award 2021.
When promoting their appointment, both the Government and the PP agreed on the technical profile and the recognized prestige of the two new directors, whose appointment sends the signal that the two main political forces in the country are willing to approach positions when choosing key positions in state agencies.
The appointments had been "heard" previously by the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, in accordance with the internal regulations of the supervisory body. Its approval corresponds to the Council of Ministers at the proposal of the Minister of Economic Affairs, who had been weighing different options in recent days, including the possible renewal of Eguidazu in office.
The PP will now have room to designate a member that will give it a presence among the six members appointed by the Government prior agreement with the main opposition party, according to a mechanism that has been respected up to now. The political part corresponds to a portion of the bank's council made up of six members, who sit next to the Governor of the Bank of Spain, the Deputy Governor, Margarita Delgado, and two additional members, who are the Secretary of State for the Treasury and the Vice President of the CNMV.
Núria Más continues to sit in the body, which is the one that covers what is known as the Catalan quota. She came to the position in 2017 and her term expires in March, with which a new appointment process will open shortly. Since he took office, Calviño had not appointed directors in the Bank of Spain and the new renewals were presented as a source of conflict, after what happened in the CGPJ and in the Constitutional Court. Hernández de Cos had emphasized that the new members had at least a technical profile.
