THE Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez raised today in a position to fight his government for a months-long election campaign, proceeding to a mini-makeover of the cabinet in order to replace two ministers who will be candidates in the municipal elections which will be held at the end of May.

In televised statements from the seat of government, the Socialist leader announced the appointment of Hector Gomet Hernandez as the new Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism and José Manuel Mignones Conte as the new Minister of Health.

They will replace Reyes Maroto and Carolina Darias respectively who will run in municipal elections in the capital Madrid, where the left hopes to take the municipality from the right, and in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands archipelago.

“With these appointments, the government will see the last part of the parliamentary term, a period during which we will continue to implement the big goals of the parliamentary term.”said Pedro Sanchez.

The reshuffle takes place two months before the May 28 municipal and regional elections and nine months before the parliamentary elections expected to be held at the end of the year, the date of which has not yet been determined.

Sanchez, who came to power in June 2018 after Parliament ousted his conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy, has ruled since January 2020 in coalition with the radical left Podemos party.

Many polls currently predict that the conservative People’s Party (PP) will win the parliamentary elections, but will depend on the far-right party Vox to secure a majority and govern.

Calling the Spanish to “renew their trust” on the left, Sanchez stated that the country “a decade of progressive governments is needed to repair the social, economic and environmental damage of the previous decade” during which the PP was in power from 2011 to 2018.

“We have a long road ahead of social advances, economic changes, government challenges and feminist conquests,” he insisted.

Asked by journalists about the government reshuffle, the head of the PP, Alberto Nunez Feijo, said that the government has “wears a lot” and expressed the certainty that “there will be political change in Spain in the parliamentary elections”.

Forty-four years old, the new Minister of Industry, Hector Gomet Hernandez, was already a member of Reyes Mayotte’s team at the ministry. He was also chairman of the Socialist parliamentary group in the House of Representatives until last July.

For his part, the 50-year-old Doctor of Pharmacy José Manuel Miniones Conte, the new Minister of Health, was until now prefect of the Galicia region (northwest Spain).

Carolina Darias, who was appointed as health minister in January 2021 amid the Covid-19 epidemic to replace Salvador Illa, a candidate in regional elections in Catalonia, led the vaccination campaign in the country.

Reyes Maroto has been on hand to head the Ministry of Industry since Pedro Sanchez came to power in June 2018.

Despite the appointment of these two men, women remain a majority in the Spanish government, including the prime minister (12 women to 11 men).