Yolanda Díaz announces that her ministry will "immediately" withdraw the medals for Merit at Work from the former president of the CEOE and the former general director of Caixanova. The measure comes more than two years after the Council of Ministers approved the royal decree that modifies the regulations for granting these awards.

“It is not enough to air corruption, but we have to prevent it and combat it effectively,” she said when explaining the measure. The medal was created in 1926, disappeared during the Second Republic and was reestablished by the Franco regime in 1942. Among the winners was the dictator himself, Francisco Franco, who in July of last year was stripped of this distinction in application of article 42 of the Democratic Memory Law. The Government of José María Aznar awarded him the medal in 1999, but he was later stripped of it. It is not clear whether the decision to withdraw the medal will lead to any other changes in the regulations of the medal.