On this day in 2018, all eyes were on the Zarzuela Palace, where King Felipe VI presided over the swearing-in of the new ministers. A week earlier, Pedro Sánchez had become president after securing the necessary votes for the success of the no-confidence motion against Mariano Rajoy. A new period of socialist government was emerging, and Sánchez took his time to choose (and vet) the names that would accompany him in the Council of Ministers.
The list of "called-up" individuals included astronaut Pedro Duque, journalist and writer Máxim Huerta, and judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Sánchez also brought back profiles from the previous cabinets of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Felipe González, such as Carmen Calvo or Josep Borrell. Gender parity was meticulously measured, and for public consumption, there were no controversial names. The surprise of the appointments and the profiles led the press to christen it the "Beautiful Government." It was the last single-party executive.
Eight years later, only three names from that period remain on the Council's table (Marlaska, Margarita Robles, and Luis Planas), two ministers were forced to resign (Huerta and Carmen Montón), and one is in prison (José Luis Ábalos). Demócrata reviews where each of the 17 members of that Executive is now.
Carmen Calvo
First Vice President and Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes, and Equality. She was Sánchez's right-hand woman until the summer 2021 government crisis, after the Covid-19 pandemic, when his Chief of Staff, Iván Redondo, also left Moncloa.
Calvo is now the president of the Council of State. In a recent interview with this publication, the former vice president recalled her time in government and the relationship with the historic body she now presides over, which celebrates its half-millennium this year.
Josep Borrell
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. After years in Brussels and a very prominent role in the fight against the independence movement during the procés, Sánchez brought him back to lead diplomacy. His tenure in the Council of Ministers was rather brief.
After the 2019 European elections, Borrell was appointed High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission. Upon concluding his mandate in Brussels, he retired from the political frontline and currently participates in conferences and lectures analyzing the international situation.
Dolores Delgado
Minister of Justice. Before her appointment as minister, she served as coordinating prosecutor against jihadism at the National Court. During her tenure, the exhumation of Franco from the Valley of the Fallen took place. On the same day of her dismissal as minister in 2019, Sánchez proposed her as candidate for Attorney General of the State, a position she held between 2020 and 2022, always surrounded by controversy and under criticism from the opposition, who considered her appointment an interference in the separation of powers.
Currently, she serves as Public Prosecutor in charge of Human Rights and Democratic Memory at the State Attorney General's Office.
María Jesús Montero
Minister of Finance. Montero made the leap from the Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations of the Junta de Andalucía to the central Executive. Until her resignation last March to be the PSOE's candidate for the Andalusian elections, she was one of the survivors after eight years of government crisis. Over time, Montero gained influence, becoming vice-president.
For now, the Andalusian leader retains her seat as a deputy in Congress, although she has stated that she will collect her credentials as a regional deputy on June 11.
José Luis Ábalos
Minister of Public Works. From registering the motion of no confidence to the Ministry of Public Works. Sánchez's right-hand man in the party, concurrently with his government positions, he was Secretary of Organization of the PSOE. He left the Executive in the same restructuring as Calvo in the summer of 2021, although his departure caused much more surprise and upheaval. He remained in Congress as a deputy until the end of that legislature and then repeated on the lists in the 23J elections.
In February 2024, the Civil Guard arrested Koldo García, his former personal advisor and man of utmost trust, and his "exile" began. As information about the "Koldo Case" emerged, the party isolated him until forcing his move to the Mixed Group, while his judicial situation began to become complicated. At the end of 2025, the Supreme Court ordered his provisional imprisonment, where he remains awaiting trial and after having renounced his seat as a deputy.
Isabel Celaá
Minister of Education and Vocational Training. With a career marked by her time in the Basque regional government, Sánchez chose Celaá to head one of the most controversial ministries during Rajoy's term. Furthermore, she became the first spokesperson for the new Government.
After leaving the Executive at the same time as Calvo and Ábalos, and leaving the educational reform unfinished, Celaá made the leap to the Vatican. Since January 2022, she has been Spain's ambassador to the Holy See and has actively participated in the preparation of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to our country.
Magdalena Valerio
Minister of Labour, Migrations and Social Security. Her political career had always been linked to Castilla la Mancha, first as a counselor in the regional government and then as a deputy for Guadalajara, until she received Sánchez's call in June 2018. After the agreement reached with Podemos for the first coalition government of the democracy, the Ministry of Labour went to the purple quota and remained in the hands of Yolanda Díaz.
Valerio left the political front line and in November 2022 was appointed president of the State Council. Now that position is held by her colleague Calvo, and she serves as a counselor and heads the second section related to justice, labor, Social Security, and migrations.
Reyes Maroto
Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism. She left the Madrid Assembly to join Sánchez's Government and headed the ministry between 2018 and 2023. Maroto left the Executive to run for Madrid city council for the PSOE. The socialists were the third most voted force, behind the PP and Más Madrid. Currently, she serves as spokesperson for her municipal group and has announced that she will run in her party's primaries to once again lead the candidacy challenging José Luis Almeida for the capital's mayoralty.
Carmen Montón
Minister of Health. She was one of the "victims" of the ethical and aesthetic bar that Sánchez set in his first term as president. Montón was at the head of the Ministry of Health for barely a few months. In September 2018, she resigned as minister after various reports emerged about alleged irregularities related to the master's degree she took at the Rey Juan Carlos University, including possible plagiarism, grade modifications, absence from classes, and questionable validations. This controversy arose months after the "Master's Case" that brought down the then president of the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes.
Despite all the uproar, in November of that same year (2018), the case opened against Montón's studies ended up being archived as no indications of crime or criminal responsibility were found. In March 2020, the Government appointed her as Spain's permanent observer ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Positions she continues to hold today.
Nadia Calviño
Minister of Economy and Trade. She was one of the figures who generated the most expectation due to her career in Europe and her technical profile. Until her appointment as minister, she served as Director-General of the Budget Directorate-General of the Commission.
Over time, her influence grew, as did the trust Sánchez placed in her. In the first coalition government, she added the title of vice president to her portfolio, and as a result of numerous reshuffles, she ended up becoming Sánchez's number two. In December 2023, she was elected president of the European Investment Bank, an appointment that led to her departure from the cabinet.
Máxim Huerta
Minister of Culture and Sports. Huerta holds the title of the shortest-serving minister in history. Barely seven days in office. The controversy arose when it became known that, between 2006 and 2008, he had used a limited company to pay taxes on part of his income as a television presenter. The Tax Agency considered that this formula had been used to pay less tax and claimed around 365,000 euros from him, an amount he ended up paying along with penalties and interest. Huerta argued that he had followed the recommendations of his tax advisors and stated that the practice was common among audiovisual professionals at the time.
After his bitter stint in politics, he returned to the world of communication, to his facet as a writer, and opened a bookstore in his hometown. Years after his departure, in an interview, he recounted the scene in which he informed Sánchez of his decision: “I arrived at Moncloa by car. I had the speech written on my phone. When I was about to enter the office, they told me to wait. It felt eternal, and I took the opportunity to take a selfie. A while later, I entered the office, and the paradoxical thing is that after telling him I was resigning, he started talking to me about Rajoy, Zapatero... He told me, ‘We all end up badly. What will they say about me? I was just thinking that I had gone there to talk, and he wasn't saying anything. ‘What will history say about me?’ he wondered, with me in front of him. That was the farewell.”
Meritxell Batet
Minister of Territorial Policy. Batet, along with Ábalos, belonged to Sánchez's inner circle. She was his number two for Madrid in the 2015 general elections and broke party discipline when the PSOE decided to abstain in Rajoy's investiture to avoid a third repeat election in 2016.
Her presence in the Council of Ministers, as well as the portfolio she held, was also framed within the balance between federations and the quota that the PSC has historically had in socialist governments.
Batet left office when the Government was in a caretaker capacity after the April 28, 2019 elections to become President of Congress. The Catalan woman led the Lower House during the XIII and XIV Legislatures. A very turbulent and polarized period that led her to want to step away from the political frontline.
Pedro Duque
Minister of Science and Innovation. Along with Máxim Huerta, he was the name that surprised the most, being a figure who, until then, was completely outside of politics. The only astronaut who had traveled to outer space representing Spain took off his astronaut suit and put on a politician's suit.
Duque's commitment to the socialist project was such that he agreed to run on the lists in the congressional elections, where he won a seat as a deputy in 2019. Duque left the Government in the summer 2021 reshuffle, which also removed Calvo, Ábalos... and which Sánchez considered necessary to face a new phase, having overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the end of 2023, he has presided over Hispasat.
Teresa Ribera
Minister of Ecological Transition. When Ribera received the proposal to head the Ministry of Ecological Transition, she was in Paris, heading the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations. Her appointment as minister meant her return to the political forefront after her time as Secretary of State under Zapatero.
Like Calviño and Montero, her influence in the Government grew, and in 2020 she was appointed Fourth Vice President and also assumed responsibilities related to the demographic challenge and territorial cohesion. A year later, she moved on to hold the position of Third Vice President.
Her time in the Government concluded after she was chosen to lead the PSOE's list in the European elections. She is currently First Executive Vice President for Ecological, Energy, and Competitiveness Affairs and European Commissioner for Competition at the European Commission.
MARLASKA, PLANAS AND ROBLES
Since Sánchez became President of the Government in the summer of 2018, as many as 56 ministers have passed through the Moncloa staircase. But only three have accompanied him from the beginning: Margarita Robles as Minister of Defense; Luis Planas as head of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; and Fernando Grande-Marlaska at the head of the Ministry of the Interior.
Planas and Marlaska are now the ministers who have been leading their respective portfolios for the longest time since the arrival of democracy. As for Defense, for now that title is held by Narcís Serra (1982-1991). But if there are no surprises and Robles remains in office until the end of the term that Sánchez has promised to complete, from January 2027, the magistrate will also become the longest-serving Minister of Defense.