The Council of Ministers today approved the appointment of Ximo Puig as Spanish ambassador to the OECD, based in Paris. The former Valencian president, who yesterday resigned his senatorial status, will also leave in a few weeks the general secretary of the PSPV, a socialist federation that he has led for twelve years. He will be replaced by Minister Diana Morant, who will be ratified in the extraordinary congress to be held at the end of March.
Ximo Puig announced last December that he was taking a "step back" in the direction of the PSPV. That decision was accompanied by his resignation from maintaining the seat of regional deputy in Les Corts Valencianes, keeping only the record of senator. However, on the table, Ximo Puig had the offer of being Spain's ambassador to the OECD, a possibility that was always very attractive to him, as he told this newspaper in an interview.
His appointment as ambassador to the OECD means for Ximo Puig to close a long period of institutional positions to face a new personal and professional project. Puig began in politics as chief of staff of Valencian President Joan Lerma; He was mayor of Morella from 1995 to June 2012 and has been a national and regional deputy in different legislatures. His great achievement: gaining the Presidency of the Generalitat in 2015, achieving a historic change for the left after 20 years of PP government. He served two terms until the defeat of last March 28.
