Albares appoints Rajoy's former chief of staff ambassador to Tanzania

The diplomat Jorge Morgas, on the right, with Mariano Rajoy in 2012. ULY MARTÍN

The Council of Ministers plans today to appoint the diplomat Jorge Moragas as ambassador to Tanzania.

Moragas, who until now directed the Embassy in the Philippines, was President Mariano Rajoy's chief of staff until 2017 and ambassador to the United Nations until the motion of censure that brought Pedro Sánchez to La Moncloa.

Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintain that the appointment of Moragas shows that diplomats linked to the PP are not discriminated against and cite, among other cases, those of Alfonso Dastis (Foreign Minister between 2016 and 2018 and current ambassador to Italy), José Ramón García Hernández (former secretary of International Relations of the PP and ambassador to Norway) or Ildefonso Castro (director of the Department of International Affairs of the Presidency with Rajoy and ambassador to Ireland).

Against these examples,

The greatest criticism, however, has not come from the current minister, José Manuel Albares, for the treatment given to diplomats close to the PP, but for the dismissals at the top of the ministry appointed by his predecessor, Arancha González Laya.

Albares, who took office a year ago, defended his right to form a team of trust, although he kept two of the four inherited Secretaries of State: Ángeles Moreno, who went from head of cooperation to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs;

and Juan González-Barba, who continued as Secretary of State for the EU.

The breakup of the minister with the latter, already last December, was the most traumatic episode, since both had worked together in the ministry.

Finally, González-Barba was appointed ambassador to Croatia, a destination of the same rank as that of the majority of senior officials who were relieved: María Celso Nuño, former undersecretary, in Switzerland;

José Pascual Marco, former director general of the EU Secretary of State, in the United Kingdom;

Fidel Sendagorta, former General Director of Foreign Policy, in Japan;

María Victoria González Román, former General Director for Central Europe, in Denmark;

or Eva Martínez, former general director for the Maghreb, in Costa Rica.

All these appointments show, according to foreign sources, how the previous minister's collaborators were treated.

A separate case was that of Camilo Villarino, González Laya's chief of staff, whom she had proposed as ambassador to Moscow.

Albares stopped the appointment, considering that he was not the right person for the position, which coincided with the imputation of him by the judge investigating the entry into Spain of the Polisario leader Brahim Gali.

Finally, Villarino was exonerated and Albares offered him an embassy, ​​according to foreign sources, but he preferred to join the European Foreign Action Service (SEAE), led by the Spanish José Borrell, of whom he had also been chief of staff.

The Government also plans to appoint today the new ambassador to Nicaragua, the diplomat Pilar Terrén.

This appointment represents a first step to normalize relations between the two countries after Spain called its ambassador in Managua, María del Mar Fernández-Palacios, for consultations last August, and Nicaragua withdrew its ambassador in Madrid, in March.

The Spanish government criticized the human rights violations and harassment of the opposition by the Daniel Ortega regime, while the Nicaraguan government prevented the Spanish ambassador from returning.

Finally, Fernández-Palacios has been appointed ambassador to Brazil.

In the year he has been in office, Albares has appointed 57 ambassadors and has filled all the vacancies.

He has kept the ambassador in Rabat, Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner, despite having been in the post for seven years.

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