The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has already cleared up the unknown of who would replace María Jesús Montero at the head of the Ministry of Finance when she left her position to focus on the regional elections in Andalusia. It was conspired that the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, would also assume her portfolio; but finally he will be first vice-president and Finance will fall to Arcadi España.
Sánchez opts for a markedly technical profile, with extensive experience in public management and a career linked both to the General State Administration and to the Valencian autonomous sphere.
Degree in Economic and Business Sciences from the University of Valencia and with a master's in Direction and Public Management by International Financial Analysts, España has developed part of his career in the private sector as a consultant, before making the leap to institutional politics.
Since 2023 he held the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy, his last position in the central Government. Previously, he had been deputy spokesperson of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in Les Corts Valencianes, a stage that consolidated his political profile in the autonomous sphere.
His career in the General State Administration includes positions such as parliamentary advisor in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and director of the cabinet of the Secretary of State for Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs in the Ministry of the Presidency, positions from which he participated in political and legislative coordination.
The bulk of his executive experience is located, however, in the Valencian Generalitat, where he held high-level responsibilities during the governments of Ximo Puig. He was chief of staff to the president, regional minister of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Mobility between 2019 and 2022, and subsequently regional minister of Finance and Economic Model until 2023, a period in which he took over the management of regional finances.
In addition to her institutional career, España is part of the Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE, where she is responsible for the Secretariat of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, which reinforces her organic weight within the party.
With this profile, the new Minister of Finance arrives to the position with a combination of technical experience, knowledge of budgetary management and political trajectory both in the territorial sphere and in the state sphere, at a time when fiscal policy continues to be one of the central axes of the Government's action.