2023-11-22 05:01:00
The 22 ministers of the new cabinet of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, swore in their positions this Tuesday before King Felipe VI in a ceremony held in the Audience Hall of the Zarzuela Palace. Furthermore, the amnesty law passed the first filter in Congress with the vote in favor of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and Sumar, and against the opposition Popular Party (PP).
“I promise by my conscience and honor to faithfully fulfill the obligations of the office with loyalty to the King and to keep and ensure that the Constitution is kept as a fundamental norm of the State, as well as to maintain the secrecy of the deliberations of the Council of Ministers,” they swore, one after another, the members of the new coalition government led by the PSOE.
On Monday Sánchez made public the names of the cabinet members. They are 12 ministers and 10 ministers, a team that she described as solvent, solid and with a marked feminist accent. 17 of them are from the PSOE and five from Sumar. Unlike the last legislature, Podemos will not have representatives.
Las minister
In this framework, one of the changes was in the Ministry of Equality, where Ana Redondo García took over in place of Irene Montero, from Podemos. Upon ceding command to her successor, Montero gave a speech in which she criticized Sánchez. “Minister, I wish you luck, but it is not the most important thing a Minister of Equality needs. I wish you to surround yourself with the best team. May they never leave you alone and may you have the courage to make the 40- and 50-year-old men and friends of the President of the Government uncomfortable,” she added, to applause from some of the attendees. Montero thus alluded to a previous intervention by Sánchez, in which she spoke of a setback in integrative feminism and admitted that she had friends who had felt uncomfortable with some speeches proposed by the Ministry of Equality.
Montero also addressed his colleague Ione Belarra, already former Minister of Social Rights and leader of Podemos, when remembering that they will no longer be part of the new coalition Executive: “Today Pedro Sánchez throws us out of the Government and thereby breaks the unity of a bloc democratic in which we all need each other.” And he continued: “Feminism is an unstoppable force that has changed the country. Let us unite against the sexist offensive of the most reactionary powers of the State, let us not leave each other alone.”
For her part, Pilar Alegría Continente renewed her position as Minister of Education and Vocational Training, also receiving the Sports portfolio from the outgoing minister, Miquel Iceta, and the Government Spokesperson from the hands of Isabel Rodríguez. “It is such an important and emotional day for me. You never imagine that the phone is going to ring and they are going to offer you the possibility of being a minister. I never use myself as an example, but when you come from a town of 400 inhabitants , from a humble family, you still think it is more impossible,” he expressed on the verge of tears.
Minister Alegría was born in 1977 in La Zaida, belonging to Zaragoza, in the northeast of Spain. She has a diploma in Teaching with a specialty in Primary Education from the University of Zaragoza and a Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Social Education from the Complutense University.
The weight of Justice
Meanwhile, Félix Bolaños, considered Sánchez’s right-hand man, also assumed office, confirming his renewal as Minister of the Presidency and adding the Justice portfolio to his responsibilities. His main challenge will be to carry out the amnesty law for Catalan independentists, admitted for processing this Tuesday in the Spanish Parliament, which sectors such as the right-wing opposition and the judiciary consider unconstitutional, and which produced protests in the country. What’s more, at the PSOE headquarters in Madrid hundreds of people demonstrated over this issue for the nineteenth night of protests, in this case after the ministers were sworn in. They carried Spanish, Francoist and Carlist flags, as well as posters against Sánchez, Puigdemont (former Catalan president) and the Communist Party.
The new head of Justice promised to work with respect for the rule of law and the separation of powers. The amnesty was one of the conditions of the Catalan independence parties to support the investiture of Sánchez for another four years as head of Government, in the midst of a strong political and social division in Spain. “It is necessary that we can also say outside of Spain that we have institutional normality in the judiciary,” Bolaños stressed.
The European Commission has requested information from Spain about this future law, after previously also asking about the stagnation of the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary. The governing body of the judges, controlled by a conservative bloc, has had its mandate expired and has been in office for five years, due to the resistance of the right-wing opposition to renewing it.
The opposition fights back
Meanwhile, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced that his party will promote a new street protest in early December to “defend the Spanish Constitution”, a mobilization that will coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Magna Carta. “We are not going to remain silent. We consider that the responsibility we have is a maximum responsibility,” Feijóo said in a television interview on a local channel, which was reproduced by the Europa Press news agency.
The opposition leader indicated that the PP will also use its institutional power against the Amnesty Law and Sánchez’s pacts with the independentistas using its absolute majority in the Senate and its territorial power. “In my opinion, we have a responsibility greater than that of the Government, because it is an irresponsible Government,” he remarked.
The PP also broadcast on its official account on the social network “Do not fail the Spanish and European citizens,” they say from the PP, who are escalating the matter. Actions that add tension at the start of Sánchez’s new mandate.
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