Spain’s New Government Has The Highest Number Of Female Ministers In The Country’s History
Spain’s New Government Has The Highest Number Of Female Ministers In The Country’s History: Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe VI named 11 women to top posts including defence and economy in a cabinet with six male ministers. That makes it the European government with the highest ratio of female cabinet ministers, ahead of Sweden’s, which has 12 women and 11 men.
Sanchez Socialist Party holds just 84 seats in the 350-seat congress. That is the smallest parliamentary presence of any Spanish government since the return to democracy in the 1970s.
Sanchez, 46, ousted conservative veteran Mariano Rajoy as prime minister last Friday in a no-confidence vote. The vote was sparked by corruption convictions against former officials from Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP).
It ended more than six years of PP government and ushered in a progressive administration under Sanchez.
The ministers at the swearing-in ceremony at the Zarzuela palace near Madrid broke with tradition by taking their oaths on the country’s constitution rather than the Bible.
They followed the example set by Sanchez, who became the first Spanish prime minister to forego religious symbols during his own swearing-in on Saturday.
The first minister to take the oath was veteran Socialist Carmen Calvo, a former culture minister, who became deputy prime minister and will also be in charge of equality.
Equality is a priority for Sanchez’s government in a country where women staged an unprecedented strike to defend their rights on March 8.
“This is a government that has to work every day for the most important thing in democracy: to reduce inequalities, and build the greatest equality, that between men and women,” she said after being sworn in.
With its parliamentary minority, the government will rely on the votes of far-left party Podemos as well as Basque and Catalan nationalist lawmakers who supported his no-confidence motion.
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias wished the new government “good luck”, adding during a TV interview that trying to govern with such a small minority in parliament “would probably be an ordeal” for Sanchez.
Podemos is pushing for greater social spending a delicate issue given the European Union’s demands on budgetary discipline.
To maintain “stability,” Sanchez has promised to implement the 2018 budget crafted by the previous conservative government. That budget includes pensions hikes and a salary increase for civil servants.
The new Spanish executive’s pro-EU credentials sets it apart from certain other parts of Europe. They contrast with the eurosceptic stance of the populist government about to take office in Italy and the Brexit process in Britain.
Sanchez’s new team includes a minister in charge of science, Spain’s first astronaut, Pedro Duque.
One of the biggest jobs has gone to Carmen Calvo, a Socialist who will become deputy prime minister and take charge of a reinstated equality ministry. Some of the other new ministers are:
- María Jesús Montero, a former Andalusia budget minister, will be finance minister
- Nadia Calviño, the chief of budget at the EU Commission, will be economy minister
- Dolores Delgado, a prosecutor specialising in anti-terrorism, will be justice minister
- Margarita Robles, a close aide to the prime minister, gets the defence ministry
- Isabel Celáa, a Socialist with long-standing experience in education becomes education minister
- Josep Borrell, the former European Parliament president, will be foreign minister
- Fernando Grande Marlaska, an openly gay magistrate and former high-court judge who took on cases against Basque separatist group Eta, becomes interior minister
- Màxim Huerta, a journalist and award-winning novelist whose last book was published two months ago, becomes culture and sports minister
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