Ana Redondo García (Valladolid 1966), a member of the PSOE, will replace Irene Montero ( Podemos ) at the head of the Ministry of Equality in the new Government of Pedro Sánchez, a department that has been at the center of the political battle in this legislature, marked also because of the division in the feminist movement. Until now she was a councilor for the socialist group in the Valladolid City Council in opposition and with Óscar Puente as mayor - today also appointed Minister of Transport - she was a councilor for Culture and Tourism from 2015 until this year.
Sánchez thus opts for a minister with a legal profile, without a career closely linked to militancy in the feminist movement and in the management of equality policies. The PSOE recovers the Equality portfolio, a demand long demanded by socialist feminists, but at the same time the profile of this constitutionalist allows the President of the Government not to take sides in the differences expressed this term between classical feminism and trans-inclusive feminism, champion by Montero.
From the beginning of the negotiations, the socialists wanted to keep the portfolio with the aim of controlling the legislative agenda that during the last legislative session created serious problems for the Executive, in particular with the approval of the law of only yes it is yes, with the collaboration of the judges, allowed the release of hundreds of rapists, putting the government in the pillory. In any case, it must be taken into account that the government agreement between the PSOE and Sumar does not include the great demands of the feminist socialists: the abolition of prostitution and surrogacy.
The great challenge for the new minister, and there are no divisions in the analysis here, will be to address the fight against sexist violence. And from the feminist movement she is also keeping an eye on the organizational chart with which the Ministry is structured in order to know where the strategies will be directed.
The refusal to keep the Ministry in the hands of Montero will mean, as anticipated by its founder and former leader Pablo Iglesias last week, the separation of Podemos from the Sumar parliamentary group. In this return of the Equality portfolio to the PSOE, it should also be noted that it would have been a problem for Sumar to retain a portfolio without Montero being its holder.
The current director of the Presidential Cabinet, Óscar López, upon his arrival as general secretary of the PSOE in the region, placed Ana Redondo, who had been a solicitor in the Cortes of Castilla y Léon since 2007, as spokesperson for the socialist parliamentary group in 2009 and in 2011 until 2015 as deputy spokesperson. She was training secretary in the socialist group of Valladolid (2000-2003) and since 2022 she has been general secretary of the local group of Valladolid.
In the municipal elections on May 28, he was number 2 for Óscar Puente on the Valladolid lists. Despite winning the elections, both remained in the opposition due to a pact between PP and Vox to take over the mayor of the Castilian-Leonese capital.
Redondo has a PhD in Law from the University of Valladolid and was a professor of Constitutional Law (1990-2009). She is the author of several monographs such as The right to amendment in the legislative procedures of the Cortes Generales or Defense of the Constitution and Compulsory Basic Education in addition to twenty articles published in various magazines and collective books.
Redondo has acknowledged feeling "happy and excited" to assume responsibility as the next Minister of Equality, a department that she has described as "key and transversal" to which "many of the advances" in women's rights are owed. She has assured this in statements to Europa Press. Likewise, she feels "very proud to belong to a chain of fighters and feminists" that has made Spain "a benchmark in terms of equality."
