Rajoy lowering expectations about changes in the Spanish Government

USPA NEWS - The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, advised on Thursday after a meeting between the European Union and the CELAC which was held in Brussels, do not expect many changes in the Executive and refused to tell names about what ministers may quit the Cabinet.

The results of the local and regional elections on May 24 opened a debate within the conservative Popular Party (PP in its acronym in Spanish) and the Government about the need to change some ministers, in an attempt to recover 2.5 million votes than the conservatives lost in these elections. Despite winning the elections, the loss of the number of votes has put the PP in an unexpected location: Saturday municipalities emerged from the elections are constituted and in most regions where parliaments still being negotiated governance were renewed.

The PP lost its absolute majority in all regions where it had before and the main Spanish capital, so that in Madrid, Seville, Valladolid, Valencia and Pamplona -previous fiefs of the Popular Party- mayors will be left, and in others conservatives have had to sign commitments to democratic regeneration and give councils to ensure the maintenance of power. Is the case of Logroño, capital of La Rioja. This region was the first to yield to the demands of Ciudadanos (Citizens), one of the two emerging parties that took benefit of local and regional elections, which holds the key to good governance. But the overall agreement for the PP continues to occupy the mayor of Logroño no equivalent in the regional Government.

And, in the regions, negotiations are more complex. Ciudadanos has reached agreements to govern conservative Madrid, Castilla y Leon and La Rioja, but agreements on who should be the presidents of these regional governments are not yet closed. And these difficulties are those that have led some prominent leaders of the PP Rajoy ask he to take action in the form of changes in the Government and among those responsible for the Popular Party.

With emphasis in recent days, the Spanish media have been publishing rumors about those changes. Rajoy himself confirmed this week that there will be changes and announced that will be released before the end of this month. But on Thursday, he asked about it, the Spanish Prime Minister appealed for calm. "I want to lower expectations" about changes in government, Rajoy said before warning that "when a policy runs, it makes no sense to make changes." He thus ruled that the changes will affect the economy minister Luis de Guindos, who aspires to chair the Eurogroup.

The Spanish government wants to minister in that position and not create inconsistent to continue as head of the economic policy of the Government until elections in November. Asked if the changes will affect the vice president and spokesman of the Government, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, Rajoy gave no clues. "On a person who has worked with me 20 years, what can I say?," he asked in turn Rajoy. "He is a person who performs his work really well," he added.