The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has appointed the academic Diego Rubio as the new chief of staff. This position was previously held by Óscar López, who was appointed the new Minister of Digital Transformation and Civil Service after the departure of José Luis Escriva to the Bank of Spain.
Rubio was until now Secretary General for Public Policy, European Affairs and Strategic Foresight, a position created at the end of 2023 to advise the President of the Government on the design and coordination of national and community public policies.
Before taking up this position, Rubio was for just over three years director of the National Office of Foresight and Strategy, an organization responsible for designing policies and setting long-term goals, beyond electoral cycles. This office is responsible, for example, for the Spain 2050 document, a series of measures for the next 30 years that include a 35-hour working day, an incentive for immigration, changes in personal income tax and a postponement of the retirement age and green energy to seek climate neutrality.
Rubio took up the position in February 2020 and shortly after, with the outbreak of the pandemic, he also became a member of the committee of experts that advised the government on the COVID-19 crisis.
Before entering government, Rubio, who graduated in history from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and studied at the Sorbonne, Columbia and Oxford, was a professor at the latter university and at IE University. He has also advised international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Commission.
Rubio has also developed research focused on how long-term changes occur in societies and how the effects of technological innovation and geopolitical transformations influence them.
He succeeds Óscar López, who in recent years was one of Sánchez’s trusted men. López was appointed chief of staff in 2021 and joined this group called the Praetorian Guard of the President of the Government, Sánchez’s closest team of advisers.
