Feijóo seeks his Body

BarcelonaDon't get overwhelmed. We aren't going to talk about out-of-body experiences here, but rather about possible economic leaders for the Spanish government after November 29th. And they don't need to be affiliated with the party. In his first terms, Pedro Sánchez turned to Nadia Calviño, an economist with good contacts in Brussels –where she was a director-general, for example–, who had also held senior positions with Pedro Solbes as minister in the executives of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Once appointed president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), in 2023 she was replaced by Carlos Cuerpo, former secretary-general of the Treasury. With a technical and low-key profile, this doctor of economics does not have a PSOE membership card, like Calviño, and projects a solvent image.

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is aware that, in the event of governing, he must transmit economic reliability. He needs to find his own Cuerpo. Before the 2023 elections, after which Sánchez ended up governing, one of the candidates who were circulating was the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos. Of great professional and technical prestige, today he directs the Bank for International Settlements –the bank for central banks–. Who knows if he could be a minister for Feijóo, with whom he has a good relationship. But it will remain to be seen if his options to replace Christine Lagarde at the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) are consolidated, whose mandate expires in a year, but who has opened the door to leaving sooner.

But there are more. At the family business congress that was held in Madrid, Luis de Guindos appeared, Minister of Economy under Rajoy during the European bailout, who, as he said, "would not cost the taxpayer a single cent." And we are still paying that money back. Also linked to, but not affiliated with the PP, after his time as vice president of the ECB, he is seen at certain events and is an eternal candidate.

But there is also the more political option: the economic team created by Feijóo in the PP. Last year, he recruited Alberto Nadal as deputy secretary of Economy, who had been secretary of state for Energy and Budgets under Rajoy. With this move, he displaced Juan Bravo, a tax inspector, who is now the deputy secretary of Treasury and who knows if the future person responsible for collecting taxes. There is also talk of a possible hidden card: Eva Valle, the minister of Economy of the government of Aragon. We shall see. There is no shortage of volunteers for the positions. The problem comes later, when aspirants who are already handing out business cards end up without a seat and later become enemies. Pedro Sánchez knows a thing or two about that.