The next Council of Ministers on Tuesday will approve the replacement of Raül Blanco as General Secretary for Industry and SMEs, who will be replaced by Francisco Blanco, Senator for Asturias. The replacement occurs after the Perte fiasco, particularly the automotive one, and before the departure of Minister Reyes Maroto herself to run as a PSOE candidate in the next municipal elections.
Raül Blanco will become the general director of the Fundación Escuela de Organización Industrial, linked to the ministry itself, as reported by Industry this Friday.
The new Secretary General for Industry and SMEs has a degree in Business Administration and Management and a PhD in Economics from the University of Oviedo. Between 2007 and 2011, he was General Director of Economic Finance of the Gijón City Council, with responsibility in the areas of budgets, taxation, accounting and assets.
Likewise, between 2011 and 2015 he was a councilor in the Gijón City Council, a position that he made compatible with his tasks as a teacher. In 2015, he was appointed Minister of Employment, Industry and Tourism of the Government of the Principality of Asturias and in 2019 he was elected senator in the thirteenth and fourteenth legislature, a position in which he has remained to date. As a senator he has been a socialist spokesman on the industry, commerce and tourism commission.
In his farewell note, Reyes Maroto thanked Blanco for his work and stressed that "he has been responsible for implementing the new instruments of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan financed with Next Generation funds, such as the Perte that represent the largest investment of the history of industrial policy in our country". The result, however, has been quite disappointing since in the case of the electric vehicle only less than 30% of the planned funds have been awarded, which even jeopardized the mega-investment of Seat-Volkswagen and has forced to cut the Nissan decarbonization hub project due to the requirements established by the regulations in terms of guarantees.
