Pedro Sánchez's new cabinet in Spain, marked by continuity

Spain's Socialist President Pedro Sanchez on Monday unveiled the cabinet for his new coalition government with the radical left, retaining many of his ministers and giving more power to his closest aides. 

Re-elected by Congress last Thursday, thanks to the support of several regional parties, including Catalan and Basque independents, the 51-year-old socialist leader is maintaining an executive with 22 ministers, twelve of whom will be headed by women. 

Of the 22 ministers, seventeen are from the Socialist Party and five are from Sumar, a radical left-wing platform headed by the communist Yolanda Díaz, who will remain at the head of the Ministry of Labour.

Among the leading figures in the Executive who will retain their posts are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. 

The Minister of Economy and Vice-President, Nadia Calviño, is also renewed, pending the decision in December on the presidency of the European Investment Bank (EIB), for which she is a candidate.

The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, considered Sánchez's right-hand man and one of the protagonists of the negotiations with the pro-independence parties, will add the Justice portfolio to his portfolio. 

The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, also from Sánchez's inner circle, will inherit one of the four vice-presidencies of the Executive. 

The new faces include people close to Yolanda Díaz, such as Ernest Urtasun, who will take over Culture, and Mónica García, who will head Health. 

Unlike the previous government, the new government will not have any ministers from Podemos, the radical left-wing party with which Sánchez governed in coalition from the beginning of 2020 until now, always with resounding clashes

With its electoral decline, Podemos has been integrated into the Sumar platform, although it is fighting to maintain its autonomy. 

The party, which has five MPs, threatened at the weekend not to support the new government if it received a "veto" and did not enter the government. 

The new government will take office against a backdrop of strong division in the country and fierce opposition from the right to Sánchez's decision to grant amnesty to Catalan pro-independence supporters prosecuted for their involvement in Catalonia's 2017 secession attempt.

In a new protest, 170,000 people, according to the government delegation, demonstrated on Saturday in Madrid against the amnesty, which should begin to be processed shortly by the Spanish parliament.