On the board of the new Spanish Government, Nadia Calviño remains the queen of the economic area, while María Jesús Montero is well placed to replace her if the first vice president returns to her beloved Brussels, two new bishops appear , the Catalan Jordi Hereu and Elma Saiz from Navarre, and the veteran José Luis Escrivá exchanges pensions for algorithms.
In short, more evolution than revolution in the economic ministries, although the whole operation is conditioned by the possible departure of Calviño to preside over the European Investment Bank (EIB). She continues as first vice-president and with similar powers, since although she loses digitization and telecommunications, she gains commerce. He will therefore continue to direct the economic area, while in Brussels he will try to close the pending issues of the Spanish presidency of the EU, such as the fiscal rules that will apply from January.
Its future should be decided on December 8, when the president of the EIB is elected. We use the conditional because Belgium, the country leading the process, has already opted for a delay on other occasions. And in fact, the duel is contested between the two great favourites. On the one hand, Calviño, now strengthened by explicit German support; and on the other, the Danish Margrethe Vestager, the figure who is supposed to have inspired the Borgen series and who gained prestige as a curator of the competition.
In any case, the BEI expects a new president by January 1st, which is when, if Calviño is the winner, she would leave the Spanish Government and force a more or less profound restructuring. A change in which Montero would then be well placed to move from the fourth vice presidency to the first and Escrivá could be available for an eventual jump to Economy.
The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, keeps her powers intact, and adds the fourth vice-presidency. "It's a show of support for their work", they say to their team without wanting to speculate on future moves. In any case, he will have to approve the new budgets and control the deficit. Something that will not be easy, after Pedro Sánchez already announced that some aid such as the VAT reduction on food will be extended until the summer. In addition, the reduction of debt in the autonomous communities, already promised in Catalonia and which will also have to be applied, in one way or another, to the rest, awaits him.
One of the new ones is the former mayor of Barcelona and until now president of Hispasat, Jordi Hereu. The share of the PSC, which has been reduced to his person and to a ministry, Industry, which seems to be the favorite of the PSC, or the one with which it always settles. He will have to develop the Industry law, one of the commitments with Brussels pending to be fulfilled. He inherits a ministry with four Pertes, but cut from the powers of trade, which pass into the hands of Calviño.
For his part, Escrivá is leaving pensions and Social Security to deal with digitization and telecommunications. Two areas that Economy transfers to him, and predictably, although it is not confirmed, accompanied by the two associated Pertes, that of the chip and that of the language. The minister who likes to debate on social networks and sketch out on napkins his formulas to guarantee the sustainability of pensions will now be in charge of developing the projects in microelectronics and semiconductors, the deployment of 5G and the AI strategy.
His successor at the head of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration is Elma Saiz, who disembarks from Navarre to check if the pensions are as sustainable as Escrivá claims and to develop what remains pending of the pension reform, especially the partial retirement
