The current Minister of Digital Transformation and Civil Service, José Luis Escriva, is chosen as Governor of the Bank of Spain. His colleague in the Council of Ministers, Carlos Body, will propose his name tomorrow before the Economy Commission of the Congress of Deputies, as announced by the ‘Cadena SER’. The nomination does not have the consensus of the Popular Party, which will not propose its squire as vice-governor of the supervisory body.
The first step is to gain the confidence of the Lower House in the session that the Assembly has reserved for tomorrow at 3 p.m. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will present a royal decree and, when it is made public in the Official State Gazette (BOE), Escriva will be able to take the oath before the king.
The most popular rejected the PSOE proposal, considering it an “armchair game” because it would imply a bridge between the Council of Ministers and the Bank of Spain, an independent institution.
Escriva has been Minister of Digital Transformation and Civil Service since last November; previously, he was Minister of Social Security, Inclusion and Migration during the last legislature, when he developed a profound pension reform.
The failure of negotiations led to the collapse of the “unwritten law” renew the management of the Bank of Spainwhich urges the main political groups to agree on the appointment of the governor, chosen by the government, and the deputy governor, in charge of the main opposition party.
Previous experience and functions
Beyond his work at the national level, the new governor of the Bank of Spain will be responsible for representing the country in the Governing Council and the General Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), appointments that mark the future of key aspects for the community economy: monetary policy and interest rates.
The economist has extensive experience in the banking sector, in institutions such as the ECB, the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) and the Bank of Spain itself, where he began his career almost four decades ago.
He has known monetary policy and the watchdog for four decades and, according to sources close to the former social security minister, would manage to implement a deep renovation, especially at the spearhead of the Bank of Spain, the research department, with which he has already had some previous meetings. The research department of this organization is an authoritative and powerful voice for giving advice and designing economic policies, as was observed during the pandemic or during the price crisis.
