He is the third man to hold the position since Pedro Sanchez He arrived at Moncloa just over six years ago. Despite his youth, the president gives him the keys from Moncloa praising his “integrity, technical rigor and cross-sectional vision”.
Only one of his predecessors was a professional politician, López, recently released. An old friend of Sánchez, the new member of the Executive had been reinstated in the presidential team in the first major government crisisIn July 2021, his appointment was interpreted as an attempt to strengthen coordination between the PSOE – where he comes from and where he became Secretary of the Organization – and the government – where he is now going.
Rubio is a historian, graduated from the Autonomous University of Barcelona with the best academic record in the country. And now, with an impressive CV despite his young age. He has been an advisor to The United Nations and of European Commissionholds a doctorate from Oxford, where he worked as a teacher and researcher, and after leaving academia, before public institutions, he had time to work in the Business Institute.
So like before Ivan Redondo (2018-2021), the president’s new chief of staff is not a politician. But their profiles could not be more different.
The Donostiarra is a communications consultantA star makernow dedicated to social research and media dissemination. However, the new boss of Moncloa is a studious man from Cáceres, a “brain”according to who knows him.
And more specifically, as a good governessa person who, for the moment, “He always aspired to anonymity”.
Of course, there is a similarity that indicates Sánchez’s intention with this appointment: Redondo and Rubio, both, were elevated to this position at the same early age, 37 years oldThe president is seeking to enhance his government action, and he is doing so by promoting as “bridge chief” the man who until now exercised command “in the boilers.”
Diego Rubio therefore goes from increasing value in Moncloa for sherpa of a climb that seems the steepest – if possible – of all that Sánchez has faced: trample on the summit of the end of his mandate in 2027. If he completes the same three-year cycle at the head of Sánchez’s office in Moncloa, he will raise the flag of the end of the legislature next to him.
“Super secretary” and “visionary”
HAS Diego Rubio they move it, As he himself explained to EL ESPAÑOL, two things: the vocation to public service and the awareness, as an academic, that Governments are not making sufficient use of scientific knowledge when making decisions. That is why he agreed, just five years ago, to leave his position as director of the Center for Governance of Change at IE University to work at Moncloa.
After obtaining his degree in History (National Prize for Academic Excellence 2011), he completed his training at the University Sorbonne originally from Paris, holder of a master’s degree in Higher Normal Schooland was a visiting researcher at the University of Colombia from New York. Later, he did the aforementioned doctorate in oxford and, at only 29 years old, he was already a professor and researcher at this British university, where he stayed for two years.
In 2017, he began teaching courses in applied history and government at the University IE Universitywhere he was introduced to the discipline of foresight, creating and directing the Center for Change Governance. Before being recruited by Sánchez to work at Moncloa, in 2020, he had already been an advisor in Brussels, the UN and the UN. Ibero-American General Secretariat.
Life moves fast for the new chief of staff of the president, we said. Already at the beginning of this legislature, Sánchez had restructured the offices of Moncloa. The young historian from Extremadura was entrusted with the mission of providing the complex monclovite of a team of maximum confidence for Sanchez who, “in the Anglo-Saxon way”, would work to give him “a global vision of the issues”.
He super secretary received on briefcase the largest in Moncloa and with a greater number of employees than the rest of the departments. Because they were in charge three general orientations.
He Department of Public Policy“which supports the design and evaluation” of the work of all ministries, and “encourages their coordination”; that of European Affairswho advises Sánchez “on matters related to the EU and bilateral relations with the Member States”; and he retained the role he had already held since 2020, that of Strategic foresight.
That’s where Rubio coordinated the work of the report. Spain 2050in May 2021. The ticketof 674 pages, was prepared only 14 months after joining at the offices of the Presidency, with the PSOE-Unidas Podemos government.
He then explained that the works were inspired by models such as the Finnish one and joked about the suspicions surrounding their presentation: “This is not a 30-year projection of the coalition government, but rather an academically exemplary work, nothing ideological or political“.
In recent months, Rubio has been above all two things: first, the president’s guide in Europe, charged withhe design and implementation of public policies, combining the national and community perspective “because, definitively, the EU is already an internal policy”. And secondly, responsible for the coordination between ministries to ensure coherence integral between them.
And one more thing, even if he always tried not to admit it: the intellectual author of many speeches of Sánchez, especially those related to his wide range of tasks.
