Pedro Sánchez announced that the former mayor of Toledo Milagros Tolón will be the new Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, replacing Pilar Alegría, whom he thanked for her “legacy” at the head of this department in which he assured that there would be “continuity” with the replacement. The government spokesperson will be Elma Saiz, the current Minister of Social Security, Inclusion and Migration. The President of the Government communicated the changes to the king before making the announcement in the footsteps of Moncloa during an appearance without questions.
“The progressive coalition government faces this stage with enthusiasm, with renewed energy, with its batteries charged and willing to fight to carry out each initiative with a desire for dialogue and humility,” Sánchez said just after the PSOE began the electoral cycle with a debacle in Extremadura, which led to the worst result in the region’s history. With this message, Sánchez reiterates his desire to exhaust legislative power and stay the course, even if he lost the parliamentary majority with the dissolution of Junts, which he intends to recover in a few months, when the courts will definitively rule on the amnesty law. At Moncloa, it is estimated that the return of Puigdemont, added to the respect of current commitments, can open a new stage.
A Navarrese as spokesperson in the middle of the Cerdán scandal
Saiz will now assume his new role in the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, which will be the last of the year. This designation is surprising because Saiz, who was an advisor in the government of María Chivite, is originally from Navarre, which brings him closer to the former Secretary of the Organization Santos Cerdán, who has just been released from prison and is facing legal proceedings as the alleged leader of the corruption plot in which former minister José Luis Ábalos and his collaborator Koldo García are also involved, both in preventive detention awaiting trial.
The new Minister of Education is currently a government delegate in Castilla-La Mancha, where she represents the main opposition to the president, Emiliano García-Page, who is the baron most critical of Sánchez. Sánchez highlighted that she has a degree in geography and history and a degree in teaching and that she worked as a teacher at the adult school in Toledo.
Tolón has devoted himself to politics for two decades. She was the first to become mayor of Toledo in 2015 and had previously served as a deputy in the Cortes of Castile-La Mancha. Between 2003 and 2011, she was a municipal councilor. With the PSOE electoral disaster in 2023, Tolón lost the town hall and Sánchez saved it for the government delegation in the region.
Sánchez assured that the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports is “strategic” for the government and assured that Alegría “has done great things” on the front, such as making the largest investment, for example in scholarships, and promoting “great laws”, such as the sports law, or “worthy” professional training. “An exceptional journey,” declared the president, who wished her good luck in the “high responsibilities” she will have in Aragon, where she will be a PSOE candidate on February 8.
Amid an avalanche of information related to corruption, which led to the imprisonment of his last two organizing secretaries, and the breakup of a “me too” within the PSOE, Sánchez’s intention is to carry out a surgical overhaul of the government when necessary due to the departure of ministers for the regional elections. The next, in principle, will be the first vice-president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, who will participate in the Andalusian elections.
Sánchez ruled out the government crisis requested of him by the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, who believes that there should be an overhaul to revive the Executive in the face of the situation that the PSOE is going through. However, the president seemed satisfied with the members of the government. In fact, the socialist wing of the coalition was very unhappy with the approach of the leader of the minority partner, who finally accepted a meeting of the leaders of the PSOE organization and the parties that make up Sumar, even though no agreement or significant progress was produced in this meeting.
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