MADRID | The new Spanish president Mariano Rajoy has announced the names of the 13 ministers who will make up his cabinet, the smallest in the history of democracy. The new government will have just one vice-presidency (the former Economy minister was also vice-president) that will be held by Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, a 40-year old politician and the person known for being highly trusted by president Rajoy. Sáenz de…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Update Mariano Rajoy, elected by an overall majority on November 20, made his investiture speech on Monday. The investiture debate in the Spanish parliament has been held on Tuesday, and after its closing in the afternoon, Mr Rajoy has been officially sworn in as the new Spain’s president. The announce of austerity measures raised yesterday great expectations, since from the election day and in spite of the…
MADRID | The Spanish press on Wednesday published reports of the newly elected Spanish President Mariano Rajoy’s trip to Marseille, where he will meet with US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and then, later on, jointly with French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Rajoy will also have the opportunity to meet with the president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, and with the Polish…
Mariano Aldama of the Royal Bank of Scotland and responsible for capital market origination for financial institutions in Spain and Portugal, has given an interview to the business daily Cinco Días in which he admits that, despite the critical situation of Spain because of excessive financing costs, it is possible to restore market confidence. We offer an excerpt of the interview. How long can the banking system resist without financing itself? The rejection in the markets can not last much longer but first there are pieces of the puzzle that…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party has won the most crushing absolute majority of its history, with 186 seats out of the total 350 of the Spanish Parliament (in 2000, former president José María Aznar achieved 183). On Monday, analysts of the financial City of Madrid expressed their opinions about this shift in the political scene. “The elections results were already expected by the markets, since…
