Spain will submit a candidacy for the leadership of the ECB.

BrusselsSpain does not want to lose its influence in European institutions. The Moncloa Palace is already preparing for this. Luis de Guindos' departure as vice president The Spanish government, which will assume the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the spring of next year, has announced that it will put forward a candidate for one of the positions on the financial institution's executive board. "Spain wants to continue having a leading role," the Socialist leader stated upon entering Brussels on Thursday for the Eurogroup meeting. Cuerpo had previously indicated that Spain wanted to maintain its "presence" at the helm of the Frankfurt-based institution, but on Thursday he went a step further and confirmed that the Moncloa Palace (the Prime Minister's office) will submit a candidate. "Spain has a pool of candidates," the Economy Minister asserted, promising a "strong and competent" profile. However, the Socialist leader avoided revealing who the candidate will be or what names he has in mind. Financial TimesHowever, it points out that the best-positioned candidate is Pablo Hernández de Cos, from Madrid, who is currently the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). He has worked as an economist, researcher, and advisor at the ECB, and was governor of the Bank of Spain. According to the newspaper itself, he "meets all the requirements," has influence in academia, and appears to be a consensus candidate within the government.

Spain asserts itself

At the height of the economic crisis, Spain was left without any voice on the ECB's Executive Board—comprised of six senior officials—despite being the fourth largest economy in the eurozone. Although Mariano Rajoy's government later managed to regain its influence, the Moncloa Palace (the Spanish Prime Minister's office) is determined to avoid a repeat of the situation from 2012 to 2018, when the Spanish state had no representation on the board of the financial institution. In this regard, the Minister of Economy has asserted that Spain is in an "excellent" economic position, very different from the economic crisis, and has reminded everyone that it is the fourth largest shareholder in the ECB. In fact, Spain is the largest economy in the European Union with the highest growth rate and is well above the eurozone average: 2.9% in 2025, 1.6 percentage points higher than the average for the countries using the single currency.

Beyond the vice presidency, currently held by De Guindos, three other positions on the financial institution's executive committee will become vacant at the end of next year: the presidency, currently held by Christine Lagarde of France, and the positions of the two chief economists. However, Cuerpo has not clarified which position Spain aspires to.

Beyond the potential Spanish candidacy, the Financial Times It is noted that two other names are being mentioned frequently. One is from the Bundesbank, the German Social Democrat Joachim Nagel. It works in his favor that Germany, despite being the largest economy in the eurozone, has never held the presidency of the ECB, but it reduces his chances that the presidency of the European Commission is already in the hands of a compatriot, the conservative Ursula von der Leyen. The Dutchman Klaas Knot, former governor of the Bank of the Netherlands, which is the fifth largest economy in the eurozone, is also well-positioned. The article states that Spain will submit its candidacy for the ECB presidency from Brussels on the same day that EU finance ministers vote for the new president of the Eurogroup. It is worth recalling that in the previous election to lead this body last July, the Spanish Minister of Economy ran unsuccessfully. However, this time it hasn't even attempted it, and the Spanish government has preferred to focus its efforts on maintaining influence at the ECB.