<![CDATA[Ara in English - Àngels Chacón]]> 10 <![CDATA[Steering wheel blow to CaixaBank's communication direction]]>

Changes at CaixaBank. The long-standing Director of Communication and Institutional Relations, Maria Lluïsa Martínez Gistau, is stepping down. She has been at the helm of the entity's communication for 25 years and for the last 10 years has also been a member of the bank's management committee. Her position will be filled by Jordi Soldevila, who until now was in charge of the entity's real estate business. In addition, the Spanish government has rushed to find a name to replace Cani Fernández to chair the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC). The Council of Ministers approved proposing Juan José Ganuza Fernández to assume the position.

]]> <![CDATA[Two former politicians join Catalan companies]]>

2026 begins with new appointments at Catalan companies, including two familiar faces from Spanish politics. Former minister and former Speaker of the Congress Meritxell Batet joins the board of Sateliot, and former regional minister Àngels Chacón will head LLYC's Barcelona office. AstraZeneca's subsidiary in Spain and Iberia also starts the year with the appointment of female executives.

]]> <![CDATA[14-F gives Aragonès the presidency despite PSC victory]]> The PSC has won the elections to the Catalan Parliament with more than 625,000 votes, but has tied at 33 seats with ERC, which collects more than 580,000 votes. The socialists' result is well above the 17 seats they had in 2017. The Salvador Illa operation has worked and has capitalised on the non-independence vote under the PSC umbrella, because the socialists have recovered 16 seats, especially in the metropolitan area, cities where Ciudadanos had won in the last elections. The latter, who were victorious in the 2017 elections, are shrunken on the map: they get only 6 seats, 30 less than in 2017. The setback is unprecedented: Cs has gone from first to seventh force in the hemicycle.

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