Live, follow the press conference after the Council of Ministers

The Government Spokesperson Minister is the political person responsible for the public communication of the Executive, especially for explaining the decisions of the Council of Ministers and the official position of the Government. Her formal competencies are mainly articulated through the functional direction of the State Secretariat for Communication, which is the main technical body for information policy. Although the structural royal decrees usually do not list in detail the personal functions of the Spokesperson, they do specify which instruments she controls and which communication areas she coordinates. From this regulation, her institutional and operational role can be described with considerable precision.

Assignment and institutional fit

The Spokesperson is not a separate body but the holder of a ministerial department to whom the President of the Government also assigns the spokesperson functions. The Royal Decree 829/2023, which restructures ministerial departments, establishes that the State Secretariat for Communication depends organically on the Presidency of the Government, but functionally on the minister who assumes the Spokesperson functions, "for the purposes of its exercise." This functional dependence is key: all major government information policy decisions are politically channeled through the Spokesperson.

The framework is completed with the royal decrees that set the structure of the Presidency of the Government itself, particularly Royal Decree 676/2025, later amended by Royal Decree 1081/2025 and Royal Decree 51/2026. These regulate the State Secretariat for Communication and reiterate its dual dependence: organic on the President and functional on the person holding the Government Spokesperson role.

Direction of information policy and institutional communication

According to the aforementioned Royal Decree 676/2025, under the organic dependence of the President and functional dependence of the Spokesperson, the State Secretariat for Communication exercises, among others, the following functions:

• Coordination of the Government's information policy and development of criteria for its determination.
• Promotion and coordination of the institutional communication policy of the State.
• Preparation and dissemination of Government and President statements.
• Summary of the activities of the Council of Ministers.
• Direction of the information services of the General State Administration in Spain and abroad.
• Relations with the media and analysis of the national and international situation.
• Organization of information coverage (national, regional, international, and digital) of government activity.
• Management of communication in national alert situations and support to the Commission of advertising and institutional communication, regulated by Royal Decree 947/2006.

By politically directing this set of functions, the Spokesperson de facto has the competence to set the official Government narrative, coordinate messages among ministries, and decide, together with the President, the main communication lines in moments of crisis, major reforms, or relevant political negotiations.

Relationship with the Council of Ministers and public appearances

The regulation does not expressly impose the weekly appearance of the Spokesperson, but from the distribution of functions it follows that the summary of the Council of Ministers' activities and the dissemination of its agreements are channeled through the structure functionally directed by the Spokesperson. In recent constitutional practice, this has translated into the usual appearance of the Spokesperson Minister after the Council to:

• Explain the main agreements adopted.
• Politically frame them within the Government's strategy.
• Answer questions from the media.

This work is also supported by the Informative Logistics Unit of the State Secretariat for Communication, which, according to Royal Decree 676/2025, manages the technical and audiovisual means necessary for the information coverage of the public activities of the President, the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, and the Government Spokesperson herself.

Coordination with other departments and external scope

The same regulation specifies that the communication bodies of the different ministries and peripheral administration depend functionally on the State Secretariat for Communication in the exercise of their information competencies. This reinforces the Spokesperson's position as a coordination node for all government communication, except for the Diplomatic Information Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose regulation refers to Law 2/2014 on the State's External Action, mentioned in the corresponding legal text.

Additionally, various organic structure norms of ministries (such as Royal Decree 426/2022, Royal Decree 126/2022, or Royal Decree 311/2021) refer to the general communication coordination exercised from the Presidency, which, in the current scheme, passes through the Spokesperson.

Limits and political nature of the position

It is important to emphasize that the consulted sources do not provide a closed and autonomous list of “competencies of the Spokesperson Minister” separate from her original ministry. Her powers are constructed by combining:

• The general functions of any minister in the Government.
• The functional assignment of the State Secretariat for Communication and its dependent bodies (defined, among others, in Royal Decree 829/2023 and Royal Decree 676/2025).
• The consolidated political practice of appearing after the Council of Ministers and leading the communication strategy.

In summary, the Spokesperson is the figure who, from the Council of Ministers and in close coordination with the Presidency, organizes and publicly represents the Government's position, using as the main tool a State Secretariat for Communication specifically designed for that purpose.

The Spokesperson's position is indirectly affected by other norms on the structure and functioning of the Executive, such as successive modifications of the Presidency (Royal Decree 954/2024, Royal Decree 158/2024, Royal Decree 94/2015, among others) or restructurings of departments and auxiliary bodies (Royal Decree 1230/2023, Royal Decree 97/2023, Royal Decree 125/2022, Royal Decree 808/2021, etc.), which confirm the dynamic and political nature of this figure.

Other BOE texts that indirectly impact the government communication ecosystem include, among others, Royal Decree 323/2024 (structure corrections), Royal Decree 313/2023, Royal Decree 124/2022, Royal Decree 1182/2020, as well as various provisions (Royal Decree 1111/2018, Royal Decree 698/2018, Royal Decree 385/2015) that affect the general organization of the Administration and, therefore, the framework in which the Spokesperson exercises her functions.

In the broader scope of State action, norms that do not directly regulate the Spokesperson but form part of the institutional context in which Executive communication develops can also be mentioned, such as Law 11/2002 of the National Intelligence Center (cited in Royal Decree 1412/2000 and in Royal Decree 829/2023) or norms on agencies and sectoral policies (Royal Decree 158/2023, Order IGD/954/2024, Order ECM/1329/2023, Order ECM/1330/2023, Order APA/566/2023), which show the permanent need for communicative coordination that the Government Spokesperson must articulate.

Pablo Bustinduy Amador (Madrid, 1983) arrives at the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030 with a profile strongly marked by academia and international politics, and by an intense period in Podemos and the Congress. Before becoming minister, he was mainly a political scientist, university professor in the U.S. and Europe, head of Podemos' foreign policy, and deputy for Madrid (2015‑2019), where he served as spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and the European Union. After leaving institutional politics in 2019, he spent several years teaching and researching until rejoining in 2023 as an international reference for Sumar.

Academic background

His education combines political science, philosophy, and political thought in three countries:

• Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), with complementary studies in Psychology and Humanities, according to his official biography at the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030 (official curriculum).
• Master's degree in History and Political Thought, with summa cum laude mention, from Sciences Po Paris (Wikipedia entry, profile at Newtral).
• Doctorate in Philosophy/Political Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, where he completed a thesis in political theory (he is cited as a doctor in several official biographies: Moncloa biography, official curriculum, Newtral).
• He was also a fellow of the "la Caixa" Foundation, which details his international academic trajectory in his fellowship profile ("la Caixa" Foundation profile).

Previous professional and academic career

Before holding public office, Bustinduy developed an international academic career and intellectual work linked to philosophy and political economy:

• Philosophy professor at several U.S. universities (Fairfield, Saint Francis College, SUNY), teaching philosophy and political theory courses approximately between 2010 and 2013, and again after 2019 (Newtral, Osoigo profile).
• Essayist, translator, and editor in projects of philosophy, political thought, and economics, according to several biographical profiles (RTVE, Vanity Fair).
• Researcher in European social policy at the Università Statale di Milano (Italy) between 2021 and 2023 (English biography at Moncloa).
• Professor at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), where he taught in the Master's in Public and Social Policies on macroeconomic and social policies in the years immediately before his appointment as minister (official curriculum, Newtral).

Membership and positions in Podemos

His entry into politics is framed within the 15-M cycle and the birth of Podemos:

• He joined the Podemos project from its start, linked to the promoting core but not among the formal signatories of the party's foundation (Wikipedia, RTVE).
• After the 2014 European elections, he worked as coordinator of the Podemos delegation in the European Parliament, headed by Pablo Iglesias (RTVE, Newtral).
• In March 2015, he joined the Podemos Coordination Council as Secretary of International Relations, directing the entire international area of the party until 2019 (Wikipedia, Osoigo).
• At Vistalegre II (2017), he aligned with the Errejonista current, supporting Íñigo Errejón against Pablo Iglesias in the internal struggle over the organization's direction (Vanity Fair, Newtral).

Deputy in Congress (2015‑2019)

In the general elections of December 20, 2015, he was elected deputy for Madrid on the Podemos ticket, and revalidated his seat in 2016, serving in the XI and XII legislatures (Moncloa, Wikipedia).

• He was spokesperson for the Unidos Podemos / Unidas Podemos Confederal Group in the Foreign Affairs Committee and also in the European Union Committee, focusing his parliamentary work on foreign policy, European integration, and human rights (Newtral, Osoigo).
• He also participated in the International Cooperation Committee and the Human Rights Subcommittee, according to activity summaries in various profiles (Osoigo, parliamentary activity videos).

European candidacy and stepping back from the front line (2019‑2023)

In 2018, he won the primaries to lead Podemos' list for the 2019 European elections, but in March of that year, he renounced leading the candidacy and left his positions in Podemos, coinciding with a shift of part of the space towards Más Madrid (Wikipedia, RTVE, El País).

Between 2019 and 2023, he remained outside institutional politics, resuming teaching and research in the United States and later in Italy, and collaborating as an analyst and columnist in media such as Diario Público (mentioned in his ministerial biography: official curriculum).

Link with Sumar before the ministry

In 2023, Yolanda Díaz incorporated him into the Sumar core: he coordinated the international area of the campaign for the July 23 general elections, recovering his role as an expert in international relations and left-wing European politics (RTVE, Newtral, El Confidencial).

When appointed minister in November 2023 (already outside the temporal scope of your question), he did so with the background of four years in Congress, leadership of Podemos' International Secretariat, and more than a decade of academic and political work on the internationalist left (Moncloa, RTVE, and Vanity Fair agree on this portrait).

Other useful references on his previous trajectory are biographical profiles and in-depth interviews published at different times: Vanity Fair, El País, Osoigo, in addition to the official files already cited and audiovisual content such as this interview.

The “Dependency reform” you refer to in the agenda does not appear in the sources as a clearly identifiable bill or legislative proposal with that title. What is recorded, on the one hand, is a Bill to reform the disability and dependency laws that "is under processing in the Congress of Deputies," and, on the other hand, several regulatory reforms of the dependency system already approved by royal decree and published in the BOE. With the available information, it is not possible to specify the exact phase (amendments, committee, plenary, Senate, etc.) of that bill, beyond that it is under processing. We can affirm that the most recent regulatory reform (Royal Decree 675/2023) is fully approved and in force, so it no longer has parliamentary progress.

1. Which initiative fits the “Dependency reform”

Among the parliamentary initiatives located, the one most clearly linked to what you call “Dependency reform” is an Oral Question in Congress, with identifier 181/001676. Its title is:

“Normative development, territorial coordination, and cooperation forecasts that the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030 has planned to guarantee an adequate implementation of the measures incorporated in the Bill to reform the disability and dependency laws that is under processing in the Congress of Deputies.”

This formulation clearly indicates that:

• There is a Bill to reform the disability and dependency laws.
• That bill is already under processing in Congress (it is not just a government preliminary draft).
• The question focuses on how the Ministry will deploy that future reform.

From this oral question, we know that:

• Chamber: Congress of Deputies.
• Identifier: 181/001676.
• Date: the initiative text was published on 03/24/2026.
• Status: only the publication of the initiative is recorded; subsequent phases (session, response, filing) are not recorded in the trace.

This question acts, de facto, as a “window” confirming the existence of the Bill to reform disability and dependency, although the specific file of that bill does not appear detailed in the information we have.

2. Available information on parliamentary status

The consulted sources describe the existence of the Bill to reform the disability and dependency laws, but do not provide a breakdown of processing (consideration, amendments, committee report, plenary, Senate step, etc.). They only indicate that:

• The bill "is under processing in the Congress of Deputies".
• Neither the file number (type 121/..., 122/...) nor the internal status (e.g., "in Committee," "in Subcommittee," "in the Senate"...) is provided.

Therefore, as of today, with the available data, it can only be stated with certainty that:

• The reform of the disability and dependency laws is in parliamentary phase in Congress.
• No further information is available in the consulted sources to locate it more precisely within the legislative procedure (amendments, subcommittee, plenary, or Senate phase).

In parallel, there are political control initiatives related to this matter, such as two written questions in the Senate about the financing of the dependency system and compliance with article 9 of the law and its reform royal decree:

• (15)684/009920 – Admitted for processing and qualified on 10/18/2024 (Senate). Its status is question admitted; no further milestones are recorded.
• (15)684/013994 – With response published on 03/10/2025 (Senate). The processing is concluded as the Government's response has been published.

These initiatives are not the reform itself but control over how the dependency system is being financed and applied after the regulatory reforms.

3. Regulatory reforms already approved (outside Parliament)

At the Executive level, the clearest recent material reform of the dependency system is Royal Decree 675/2023, of July 18, which modifies Royal Decree 1051/2013 on benefits of the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency. Its processing was:

• Public hearing of the “Draft Royal Decree…” between 04/03/2023 and 04/25/2023, according to the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030's consultation page: public consultations.
• Approval in the Council of Ministers on 07/18/2023, recorded in the corresponding Council of Ministers reference.
• Publication in the BOE on 07/19/2023, according to the BOE of July 19, 2023.

This royal decree, key in the current configuration of dependency benefits, is already fully in force, so it has no pending parliamentary progress (simple royal decrees are not ratified in Congress, unlike royal decree-laws).

Additionally, the architecture of the dependency system has been completed with other previous norms, also already in force, including:

• Royal Decree 174/2011, which approves the dependency situation assessment scale, published in the BOE on 02/18/2011: dependency scale 2011.
• Resolution of July 13, 2012, which publishes a Territorial Council agreement for system improvement: 2012 agreement.
• Resolution of February 4, 2010 on assessment bodies and procedures: 2010 resolution.

There are also 2008 resolutions related to ONCE and the dependency and disability field, although more tangential to the system's core:

• Resolution of October 15, 2008 on reform of the ONCE coupon products regulation: ONCE coupon reform.
• Resolution of July 11, 2008 on reform of the ONCE instant lottery tickets regulation: ONCE instant lottery.

4. What can we conclude about the current status

In summary, regarding the “Dependency reform” in your agenda, the picture provided by the sources is:

• There is a Bill to reform the disability and dependency laws that is being processed in Congress, but the sources do not detail its internal phase, so it cannot be located more precisely in the procedure.
• The most recent regulatory reform, Royal Decree 675/2023, is already fully approved and published in the BOE, with no pending parliamentary procedure.
• There are also several control initiatives (written and oral questions) in Congress and Senate that politically accompany this reform, but they do not constitute the reform law itself.

In the absence of more official data on the specific file of the bill, no further information is available in the consulted sources to better specify its parliamentary status.