Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez carried out a mini-reshuffle on Monday to replace the ministers of Health and Industry, Carolina Darias and Reyes Maroto, who are both running for municipal elections at the end of May.
“
The new Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism will be Héctor Gómez Hernández, and the new Minister of Health will be José Manuel Miñones Conde
,” the socialist leader announced in a televised address from the seat of government.
They will respectively replace Reyes Maroto and Carolina Darias who are candidates in the municipal elections in Madrid and Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, explained Pedro Sánchez.
Preparing for the next elections
This reshuffle comes two months before the municipal and regional elections of May 28 and nine months before the legislative elections scheduled for the end of the year.
The new industry minister, 44, was already part of Reyes Maroto's team in the ministry.
He was also president of the socialist group in the Chamber of Deputies until last July.
The new Minister of Health, a 50-year-old doctor of pharmacy, was until now prefect of the region of Galicia (north-west).
Carolina Darias was appointed Minister of Health in January 2021 in the midst of the resumption of the Covid-19 epidemic, taking over from Salvador Illa who ran in the regional elections in Catalonia.
Reyes Maroto has been head of the Ministry of Industry since Pedro Sánchez came to power in June 2018.
