Towards Andalusia: the "woman with the most power in democracy" sets off

Madrid"She always likes to point out that she is a graduate in medicine". It is one of the characteristics that a former Catalan deputy in Congress in charge of economic matters recalls when asked what he would highlight about the first vice-president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, now that she is leaving Pedro Sánchez's government. The truth is that Montero's career is marked by Healthcare. Not only is she a doctor by training, but she took her first professional steps as a hospital manager. This, in fact, was her entry point into the Andalusian Ministry of Health in 2002. And perhaps because of this, Montero is now returning to her native land announcing that if she wins the elections – she is the PSOE candidate – one of the first measures will be to approve a plan to "save" public healthcare in Andalusia.

But Pedro Sánchez fished Montero in 2018 not because she was heading the Ministry of Health, but one of the core portfolios of any Spanish executive: Finance. The fact is that at that time Montero was the minister in charge of the sector in Andalusia – Susana Díaz (PSOE) was governing. The socialist candidate managed to balance the regional accounts despite the ravages of the financial crisis, but she did so, precisely, by touching the numbers of her favorite department, Health, which led her to receive strong criticism and mobilizations from the affected sectors. Beyond the wink to susanismo, Sánchez hired her to do the same: control the State budget.

susanismo, Sánchez hired her to do the same: control the State budget.

"I am very satisfied [with these eight years]", Montero stated this Wednesday from Congress, during her last control session of the government. The Minister of Finance has repeatedly highlighted the capacity to make them sustainable, without sacrificing social policies. "I am taking many things with me from these years", Montero reiterated in statements to the media. The socialist has emphasized the capacity for dialogue within the government (especially during the coalition stages), but also outside, with the different political parties. That said, she has not hesitated to criticize the PP's harshness: "I hope they abandon the tone of bickering and dehumanization". "I leave much wiser", she reiterated.

She also leaves having accumulated a lot of power, as she herself has highlighted. In addition to Minister of Finance, Sánchez appointed her spokesperson, then first vice-president, and therefore number two in the government, and in the meantime she has climbed positions within the PSOE. "Perhaps she has been, without a doubt, the woman with the most power in the entire democracy," Montero has defined herself in the third person. Words that have cost her, again, the darts of the right: "She is not the woman with the most power, but the most arrogant in democracy [...] and the worst Minister of Finance," the PP spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, dedicated to her this Wednesday.

Balancing the public accounts

Despite the crises that have arisen, starting with the covid-19 pandemic, the Spanish government has closed 2025 with a deficit of 2.5% of GDP, thus meeting its objective, but also European fiscal rules. While public debt closed the year at 100.8% of GDP, the lowest level since the year before the coronavirus. However, challenges remain on the table, such as tying up the figures for the Social Security coffers – pension spending will continue to rise in the coming years –; reducing public debt in absolute terms – also in December it registered a historic maximum of 1.7 trillion euros – or completely ending the loopholes in the Spanish tax system that academics and tax experts have pointed out on numerous occasions. Although extraordinary taxes have been introduced on energy companies, banks and large fortunes, fiscal revolution is still awaited for now.

All of this is the work of the ministry piloted by Montero. This is why some paraphrase the famous phrase that a government is always a coalition – even if it only consists of one party – between the Ministry of Finance, which must control the budget, and the rest of the ministries, which demand resources. During these years, Montero has not only had to balance the books to secure the votes of political parties in Congress, but has also had to negotiate the demands of her executive colleagues. With Podemos and later Sumar, for example, the increase in some benefits, such as those for childcare, has caused more than one clash.

All in all, Montero can say that she has managed to please everyone on three occasions: since Sánchez arrived at Moncloa in 2018, general state budgets (PGE) have been approved for 2021, 2022 and 2023. Budgetary extensions have been, however, the usual scenario, and Montero leaves without having presented the project for new accounts for 2026, as Sánchez has committed.

Regional financing, an impossible sudoku

But this will not be the only unresolved issue left for the minister. If Sánchez set his sights on Montero, it was also to try to steer a reform of regional financing. For the socialist, it was not an unknown matter, especially since it was Susana Díaz, as Andalusian president, who in 2018 opened the fire of negotiations with the then Spanish government president, Mariano Rajoy (PP).

In 2021, she made a first attempt with the presentation of a new calculation of adjusted population, a key element of the financing system when distributing resources. She did not succeed and has tried again this 2026, driven, however, by the agreement between ERC and the socialists to invest Salvador Illa. Beyond taking into account the "singularity" of Catalonia, the proposal, which has not yet reached Parliament, means in general terms more resources and weight for the communities in IRPF and IVA. But Montero has managed to partially satisfy the republicans: she has won the tug-of-war for Catalonia to collect all of the IRPF for now.

Finally, in thisall in that the socialist trusted to make before returning to Andalusia there was also the forgiveness of part of the regional debt linked to the FLA, which is now being processed in Congress. The measure was also agreed with ERC in exchange for investing Pedro Sánchez. The Spanish government has always attacked the PP for rejecting a proposal that, it says, also benefits the communities it presides over. Andalusia is the best-off territory in absolute terms (18,791 million would be forgiven), something that Montero will not hesitate to use as a card in the electoral campaign.