The members of the new Gallego Government, considered as the first 100% team of Alfonso Rueda, have promised the jury this role before the new president of the Xunta de Galicia in the palace of Raxoi, the institutional headquarters of the Autonomous Executive in the plaza of the Obradoiro of Santiago de Compostela.
The new Government will be made up of seven men and five women, who on this same day will participate in their first meeting of the Council. Unlike the previous Rueda Executive, there will be no vice presidencies.
After reading the appointment decrees, one by one they went to the table where there was a copy of the Statute of Autonomy, another of the Constitution and a Bible. Eight councilors have sworn in the position and another four have chosen to promise it.
Specifically, they have chosen to promise the position of the Councilor for the Presidency, Justice and Sports, Diego Calvo Pouso; the new head of the Department of Housing and Infrastructure Planning, María Martínez Allegue; the Minister of Health, Antonio Gómez Caamaño; and the head of the Ministry of the Sea; Alfonso Villares.
For his part, Ángeles Vázquez, the head of Medio Ambiente y Cambio Climático, chose to swear in; the person responsible for Education, Science, Universities and Professional Training, Román Rodríguez; the Economics and Industry advisor, María Jesús Lorenzana; the head of Facenda and Public Administration, Miguel Corgos; the co-seller of Employment, Commerce and Emigration, José González; la de Medio Rural, María José Gómez; the person responsible for Culture, Language and University, José López Campos and the advisor for Social Policy, Fabiola García, who used the language of signs to assume their responsibilities.
At the event, in addition to the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, the former head of Health, Julio García Comesaña, spoke on behalf of the outgoing councilors; and the new head of Housing and Infrastructure Planning, María Martínez Allegue, representing the new members of the Executive.
This is the first team that is considered Rueda's in the strict sense, given that he inherited that of Alberto Núñez Feijóo when he succeeded him in May 2022 and became the sixth president of the autonomy. Barely a year later he began to adjust it to suit him, but again prompted by a decision by his predecessor, now leader of the state PP, who forced changes by taking Francisco Conde and Rosa Quintana to Madrid.
But Rueda has achieved his highest political objective so far and the broad victory at the polls on February 18 has not only served to give air to the state leadership of Feijóo, who baptized him as baron of the PP, but to reinforce his leadership and autonomy in the party. Different popular voices - with their number two, Paula Prado, among them - have defended in recent days their legitimacy to articulate a Government to their liking and have made use of it.
A new Department of Culture, Language and Youth, four new signings and three departures (if Ethel Vázquez, who weeks ago left the Xunta to become secretary of the Parliament Board, is included) demonstrate this. But the decision that politically may have a more symbolic reading is that of eliminating the two vice-presidencies that until now accompanied the Presidency.
Different party sources consulted agree on the idea that Rueda has moved away from the "model" chosen by Feijóo from his second term to "be Feijóo", that is, to reinforce his presidential role. In fact, Os Peares did not have vice presidents in his first term either.
