Cabinet Reshuffle Promotes Party Stalwarts, Seeks To Solve Catalan Issues

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez engaged in a Cabinet reshuffle over the weekend that has been viewed by observers as an attempt to reduce simmering tensions over Catalonia, solidify Sanchez's position at the head of his centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), and effectively manage the country's economic recovery from the pandemic.

• Justice Minister Juan Carlos Campo was removed, replaced by a judge, Pilar Llop. Carlos Campo had faced criticism from the right for providing legal ammunition to the gov't to pardon several imprisoned Catalan independence leaders. Camino Mortera, senior fellow at the Centre for European Reform, has stated that the reshuffle, which also sees a Catalan PSOE minister who led negotiations with Catalan separatists demoted, is an attempt to reduce pressure on the gov't with regards to Catalonia.
• The replacement of Arancha Gonzalez Laya by Jose Manuel Albares (formerly the Spanish ambassador to France) as foreign minister and Pedro Duque being replaced as minister of science and innovation by Diana Morant, among other replacements, is being viewed as Sanchez replacing technocratic ministers installed when the PSOE first came to office with loyalists from his party in an attempt to marginalise Podemos and shore up his position in the party.
• Carmen Calvo, who served as First Deputy PM, is out, replaced with Economy Minister Nadia Calvino. Calvino is a technocrat without a political affiliation. Her promotion to one of the most senior positions in Cabinet is being painted as a signal of how important the PM views the effective dispersal of EU recovery funds for the future of his gov't. However, she is unpopular with the far-left Podemos party, which serves as the junior coalition partner to Sanchez's PSOE, potentially creating some issues between the two governing parties.