Press briefing by President of the Government of Spain to announce cabinet reshuffle

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Good afternoon,

I appear here to inform you of the new appointments that will take place in the Government of Spain. I conveyed this decision this morning to the Head of State, King Felipe VI, which takes place pursuant to Articles 62 and 100 of our Constitution - the Spanish Constitution.

You are aware that the Second Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Iglesias, will stand in the regional elections in Madrid on 4 May. His decision logically leads us to make the pertinent cabinet reshuffle, maintaining our progressive coalition government agreement intact.

I firstly wish to thank the outgoing Second Vice-President of the Government for his work over the last year. Following the elections on 10 November, we agreed, as you know, to form the first ever coalition government, with the common goal of taking Spain out of a stalemate situation and offering a path of necessary political stability for our country, along with progress for the whole of Spanish society.

During this time, we have found ourselves faced with the overwhelming task of managing a pandemic, with a health, economic and social emergency caused by an unstoppable virus all around the world. This is the worst crisis to hit Mankind in the last 100 years.

And I feel I must say that, despite the different visions of our political parties and our proposals, unity, responsibility and the general interest have always prevailed in this coalition government.

I will now list the new appointments:

• Nadia Calviño Santamaría will become the Second Vice-President of the Government and maintain her portfolio as Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.
• Yolanda Díaz Pérez will become the Third Vice-President of the Government, replacing Pablo Iglesias, while maintaining her portfolio as Minister for Work and Social Economy.
• And Ione Belarra Urteaga will be appointed as Minister for Social Rights and 2030 Agenda. She will thus cease to be State Secretary for 2030 Agenda.

Nadia Calviño, Yolanda Díaz and Ione Belarra are women who, in their different positions of responsibility, have performed outstanding work on behalf of the government to combat this pandemic. They have offered a resolute attitude and a constructive disposition at the worst times of the pandemic. They have shown that the formula for forging a broad consensus is unity and dialogue and have proven to be dedicated public servants. They can all count on my full trust together with my gratitude for accepting their new responsibilities.

I should also highlight that the Government of Spain is among the most gender balanced in the world. Following this cabinet reshuffle I am announcing today, it is now ranked sixth in the world in terms of countries with the highest proportion of women in its cabinet, and the fourth in the European Union.

We are a feminist government, which advocates real and effective equality between men and women, and this will continue to be the case. It is feminist because we are placing women leaders to head up this government. And it is feminist because our government action is based on applying a gender perspective, making real and effective equality between men and women one of our main pillars of political, economic and social transformation.

Up to this point, as you know, this government had gender parity, but it now has more women than men.

Women already had a specific weighting in this coalition government. As from today, this weighting is even higher, or even more decisive. In fact, for the first time in our country's history, the four vice-presidencies of the government are held by women. These four women are capable, competent, exemplary and irreproachable. We are now the only government in the world with four women vice-presidents of the government. Their leading roles are a source of pride for the women of this country and I am convinced that also for a great many Spanish men.

Regardless of any political preferences, all the men and women of Spain can feel proud to see how our country has once again become an international benchmark in rights and liberties, in this case in real and effective equality between men and women.

And at this time, I feel it is also important to once again underline that the priority of the Government of Spain is to continue managing the health, economic and social emergency. I have said this on many occasions: if 2020 was the year of the pandemic, and hence of resistance by the whole of Spanish society, then 2021, particularly as of the second quarter, which starts in the month of April, will be the year of the vaccination, and hence of the economic recovery. And with this goal in mind, we will decisively press on with our work, implementing the four main transformations we need to all come out of this together: job creation, pave the way for a Spain that must be more sustainable, more cohesive from a social and territorial perspective, more digital and more feminist. Offering Spain stability under a progressive coalition government until the year 2023.

With the utmost loyalty to Spain, we will continue in our efforts with humility and discretion, but also with a great deal of determination to tackle the challenges we face, which are the main concerns and demands from Spanish society: the recovery, vaccination and social protection.

Thank you very much.