Pedro Sánchez confirms all his hard core in Moncloa and Alberto Núñez Feijóo rehearses a change of team at the top of the Popular Party. The message, they assure Moncloa, is this, clear: "The team is very strong politically and is very coordinated". And it is perfectly greased, moreover, with the federal leadership of the PSOE in Ferraz.
In this way, Sánchez rejects experiments before a legislature that everyone assumes will be particularly "intense", as the spokeswoman for the Spanish Government, the socialist Pilar Alegría, acknowledged yesterday. The new structure of the Executive will in any case be made up of "men and women with a proven and solvent track record in management", as the minister spokeswoman assured.
The first meeting of the Council of Ministers of the new term already revalidated last week the appointment of Óscar López as chief of staff of the Presidency of the Spanish Government and of Francesc Vallès as Secretary of State for Communications. And yesterday the meeting of the Cabinet confirmed the rest of the members of the dome of Moncloa in the positions they occupied until now.
Thus, Antonio Hernando continues as deputy director of the Cabinet of the Presidency; Francisco Salazar, as Secretary General of Political Planning, and Diego Rubio, as Secretary General of Public Policies, European Affairs and Strategic Prospects.
Sánchez's economic guru, Manuel de la Rocha, is strengthened as director of the Office of Economic Affairs and G-20, because he will now have the rank of Secretary of State.
The novelty in the organizational chart that has been approved is General Loreto Gutiérrez, who assumes the direction of the National Security Department of the Presidency's cabinet - in the so-called Moncloa bunker -, after the retirement of the veteran General Miguel Angel Ballesteros
Gutiérrez was the first general of the Air Force, according to the spokeswoman of the Spanish Government, and for the first time a woman will assume this position in Moncloa.
The secretary general of Foreign Affairs continues to be Emma Aparici, and the director of the Department of Speech and Message is Jesús Javier Perea, while Pilar Sánchez Acera continues as director of Óscar López's cabinet, among other appointments.
The Council of Ministers also approved the appointments of new Secretaries of State, such as Joaquín Pérez Rey (Work), María Amparo Merino (Social Economy), Manuel Olmo (Justice), José Antonio Santano (Transport), David Lucas (Housing ), Jordi Martí (Culture), Javier Padilla (Health), Rosa Martínez (Social Rights) and Rubén Pérez (Youth and Children).
The Central Government, in turn, yesterday started the process of renewing the appointment of Álvaro García Ortiz as Attorney General of the State. Despite the decision of the Supreme Court, which attributed to her a "deviation of power" due to the ascension of her predecessor to the position, Dolores Delgado, the minister spokeswoman assured that she has "the confidence" of the Executive.
