Sánchez promotes Calviño and Bolaños and dispenses with Calvo, Ábalos and Redondo

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has made today a revolution in the Government by promoting Nadia Calviño to the first vice-presidency and Félix Bolaños to the Ministry of the Presidency, while he has dispensed with Carmen Calvo, José Luis Ábalos and Iván Redondo, among others. However, he has replaced some independents, such as Arantza González Laya or Pedro Duque, and has pulled party members for the new portfolios, among them José Manuel Albares, three mayors -those of Puertollano, Gavá and Gandía- and Óscar López.
Pedro Sánchez will leave out of the Executive a total of seven ministers, among which stand out the first vice-president, Carmen Calvo, and the Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos. Both have been two faithful squires during the entire journey of Pedro Sánchez, first for the general secretariat of the PSOE and then in the presidency of the Government. Calvo and Ábalos maintained their support for the chief executive even when he was expelled from the general secretariat and accompanied him in his race to regain control of the party.
Now, the first vice-presidency will be assumed by Nadia Calviño, which according to socialist sources implies Sánchez's commitment to economic orthodoxy. Although the new second vice-presidency will be the current third vice-president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, and the third vice-presidency, Teresa Ribera.
However, the structure of the Government will not be reduced, since although Carmen Calvo leaves, the competences of the Presidency will be assumed by the former Secretary General of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, who will be promoted to Minister. The latter has performed his position with efficiency and discretion, qualities now rewarded by Sánchez.

Ábalos' post will be filled by Raquel Sánchez, the mayor of Gavá, a Barcelona municipality of 47,000 inhabitants. She will hold the portfolio of a Ministry that invests heavily, especially in infrastructure.

ÓSCAR LÓPEZ WILL OCCUPY REDONDO'S POST
Along with Calvo and Ábalos, the hitherto considered 'all-powerful' chief of staff of Pedro Sánchez, Iván Redondo, who arrived with the president to the Moncloa in June 2018, after the motion of censure and after he dispensed with Juan Manuel Serrano, who had been loyal to him since his landing in Ferraz, also leaves the Government. Although he later compensated him with the presidency of Correos.
Redondo, who does not have a PSOE card, has been Sánchez's main advisor and had been accumulating power during these three years, designing the strategy carried out by the Government, but also influencing the PSOE's electoral strategies. Not only did he add to his position the Secretary of the National Security Council, but Sánchez gave him the command of all the departments that assist the president.
Now his position will be filled by Óscar López, who will come from the presidency of Paradores Nacionales, although he is a party man, who has held organic positions as number two of José Blanco in the Zapatero era and as number three of the PSOE, with Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.
It remains to be seen if Óscar López will have all the power that Iván Redondo had or if the attributions of his position are reduced with the new reshuffle.
 

 

Sánchez has also dispensed with the head of the Ministry of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, after the controversial granting of pardons, whose department had to argue the granting of the measure of grace for nine ex-officials of the Govern who were in prison. A complicated justification after the setback of the Supreme Court that opposed the granting of the pardons.
Her position will be filled by the current president of the Senate, Pilar Llop, who has recently been involved in controversy for annulling a vote that the PSOE had lost in the Senate, the lowering of VAT for hairdressers to 10 percent.
The crisis with Morocco has also taken its toll on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, who will be replaced by the Spanish ambassador in Paris, José Manuel Albares. He was an advisor to Sánchez on international matters and when he came to the Government he appointed him advisor for International Affairs, within the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government. Since January 2020 he was ambassador in Paris and now he returns to Spain to occupy the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

The other ministers leaving the Government are the Minister of Education, Isabel Celaá; the Minister of Culture, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes; and the Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque. The former will be replaced by Pilar Alegría, until now delegate of the Government in Aragón, but also with a long trajectory in the PSOE, where she was part of the Executive and held organic positions with Rodríguez Zapatero.
José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes will be replaced by Miquel Iceta, until now Minister of Territorial Policy. Iceta was appointed only a few months ago as head of Territorial Policy and Public Function, where he has worked in recent months to provide a way out for interim civil servants.
Now, part of his Ministry, the one referring to Territorial Policy, passes into the hands of the hitherto mayoress of Puertollano, Isabel Rodríguez, who will also assume the Government Spokesperson's Office.
The other part of this department, the one referring to the Civil Service, passes to the Ministry of Finance, which is occupied by María Jesús Montero, who also leaves the Spokesperson of the Executive.
And the Ministry of Science and Innovation will pass into the hands of another mayoress, Diana Morant, who is a Telecommunications engineer and worked in the private sector in R+D+I tasks before becoming a politician.