A 360-degree turn means making a complete turn. Or what is the same, ending up right back at the starting point. And that is what Óscar López Águeda (Madrid, 1973) is doing by joining the Council of Ministers as head of the Digital Transformation and Public Service portfolio. A close friend of the current Prime Minister for almost two decades, his long political career in the PSOE and his personal closeness to Pedro Sánchez suggest that he could be a minister as soon as the socialist leader sets foot in Moncloa. And everyone in Ferraz thinks that he had all the qualifications to be part of Sánchez’s first executive. But that was in 2018 and before, of course, 2017. The year of the personal and political breakup of the two friends forged as parliamentary advisers in Brussels.
It was in the 90s of the last century, when Pedro Sánchez and Óscar López were advisors to the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. And there, far from the spotlight of the front line and behind the scenes of community politics, a close friendship was formed. Together with Antonio Hernando, they joined the team of José Blanco’s Secretariat of the Organization. It was 2000 and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had just been elected, against all expectations, secretary general of the party.
Sánchez, López and Hernando worked on all of Zapatero’s campaigns. Those who remember the PSOE of those years speak of three “inseparable” friends. Until politics separated them, like so many other inseparable friends. Óscar López, who remained faithful to his friend until the end during that historic federal commission of October 1, 2014 in which the party split to remove Pedro Sánchez from the position of secretary general, was dismissed from his position as spokesman in the Senate by the socialist director in retaliation. And three years later, he would experience a similar situation, this time at the hands of the one with whom he shared 20 years of personal and political career.
In the 2017 primaries, López decided to distance himself from Sánchez’s project and ended up supporting Patxi López as secretary general. Pedro Sánchez defeated Susana Díaz and Patxi López and became secretary general of the PSOE for the second time. And then he did not forget who accompanied him and who had been left behind. So he was once again removed from the front and sent to a kind of golden retirement: president of the Paradores.
Having had virtually no personal or political relationship for years, the Prime Minister and Oscar Lopez were rebuilding bridges. The PSOE is told that the resignation with which he accepted his departure from the front and the fact that he has never heard, either in public or in private, a bad word about the one who had been his friend for so long. many have contributed to this for years.
In the summer of 2021, the crack in the PSOE was definitively sealed by Pedro Sánchez. His restructuring of the government and his work team at Moncloa involved the reinstatement of many people from whom he had been separated. And at his side, as chief of staff of the presidency, he wanted to have Óscar López, a party man who arrived to replace the external signatory Iván Redondo.
Since that day, Oscar Lopez has been the closest person to the president in each of the relevant decisions adopted, such as the electoral advance of the general elections of the 23rd. And now, it is back to square one. In the Council of Ministers where he could have landed in 2018. To remain close to Pedro Sánchez, his friend for so many years. President of the Government for six years.
