Nadia Calviño went to Luxembourg almost two years ago to preside over the European Investment Bank (EIB), but it is as if she had not left the executive. The presentation of Two thousand days in government in which the Minister of Economy from 2018 to the end of 2023 and first vice-president in the last two years retraces in first person his role in the management of the successive crises that the first coalition in power had to face, and which in addition to that of the left, starting from the Second Republic, has generated an unthinkable mobilization with several generations of socialists and the business world for a woman who bears the reputation of a technocrat, orthodox and distant from the first nice government of Pedro Sánchez, an impression she does not share, and feels identified with the definition of defender of rigor and responsibility. “She will always be one of us,” summarized one of the seven ministers, none of them from Sumar, present at the Ortega-Marañón Foundation. “We have Nadia and they have no one,” another senior Executive official recalled in a mocking tone, paraphrasing Pedro Sánchez when he claimed Calviño and his good macroeconomic growth data in the face of the PP’s lack of an economic plan that bases its strategy of returning to La Moncloa on anti-Sanscism.
The reason for the book (Editorial Plaza & Janés), “which was essential to publish” according to Calviño, is because the former vice president did not want the government’s “policies” to pass without a trace in the face of the concatenation of difficulties that he had to overcome, especially starting from 2020. “There is no manual on how to respond to a pandemic, to extraordinary crises. Furthermore, the great financial crisis (of 2008) made Spain lose a decade and the social damage was This is what that we found when we came to government and that is why the key to our economic policy has been fiscal responsibility, social justice and structural reforms. The social dimension has been very important in all the measures adopted since 2018”, underlined the President of the EIB in a meeting moderated by Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute, and the journalist Marta García Aller.
“I am no longer at the forefront of politics, this book serves to explain that many times transcendental decisions are made for the lives of citizens and these are covered by the noise of the day, that feverish pace that has accelerated exponentially with social networks means that sometimes we do not understand what is happening,” warned Calviño, underlining the misinformation. And also in the disagreements that Unidas Podemos expressed with the PSOE, generating confusion. “There are government coalitions in most European countries and in every government, in every human organization, in every family, there are different points of view. Furthermore, every minister has a function and has a point of view, and therefore the fact that there are debates and different points of view is normal. And for this there are channels within organizations, which is quite extraordinary, or at least I had not seen, is the great separation between the reality of work within the government and all the noise and fictitious disputes, in the vast majority, which was generated around us”, he recalled his differences first with Podemos and then with Sumar.
One of the juiciest passages of Two thousand days in government This is where Calviño puts down in black and white the bad relationship with the minority partner of the coalition. “With the coalition government, the first since the return of democracy in Spain and almost the only one in Europe with the participation of a far-left party, I have become the enemy to defeat for a part of the government and, at the same time, for many citizens and sectors of the national and international economic world, the main front of resistance against the most radical and irresponsible ideas of the minority partner,” he says.
The relationship wasn’t much better with Sumar. In the book it is also important who is not spoken of: Yolanda Díaz. Not a line in 336 pages. Unlike the arrival of the socialist ministers of the current Government and the arrival of Sánchez in La Moncloa in June 2018, Carolina Darias, mayor of Las Palmas and former head of Territorial Policy, and Reyes Maroto, former head of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and spokesperson of the PSOE in the Spanish capital, had already arrived at the Ortega-Marañón Foundation half an hour before the start of the event – the second vice-president and minister of Labor he looked for another plan and participated, almost simultaneously, in the screening of the feature-length documentary Dolores Ibarruri. Passionflower, to the Film Academy, a mile and a quarter of an hour’s walk away. The disagreements between Calviño and Díaz were as varied as they were well-known: from the so-called “dismissal ban” during the pandemic, which prevented employers from terminating contracts due to the crisis caused by Covid, to the design and approval of the Knight’s Law. Díaz’s intention to repeal the entire labor reform approved by Mariano Rajoy’s Executive in 2012 has caused several storms in the government coalition. In the end, Economía rewrote many of its points and had to make concessions on others.
Calviño avoided placing medals and focused on the government’s general response to the worst health crisis in the last century and the reaction to the drop in inflation, which rose to 10.8% due to the war in Ukraine. “Everything is a collaborative effort, I’m proud of the whole. All the structural reforms, getting financing from Europe, the ERTE… It’s impossible to isolate one decision. It reflects a strategic vision. Like in the ICO credit decision, the speed and success in designing those guarantees. Other countries have done it, but we have done it faster and more effectively,” she assessed. And what is left in the pipeline? “I would have liked to approve the law on the protection of financial clients and build a large public bank around the ICO,” he acknowledged, under the watchful eye of the first vice-president María Jesús Montero – who succeeded Calviño at the end of 2023, when he left for the EIB – and the ministers Fernando Grande-Marlaska (Interior), Carlos Cuerpo (the dolphin that Calviño left to the Economy), Óscar López (Digital Transformation), Luis Planas (Agriculture), Isabel Rodríguez (Construction) and Jordi Hereu (Industry).
And there were no more ministers for reasons of agenda: the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, was traveling to The Hague to participate in the meetings of Eurojust and Europol, and the government spokesperson and head of Education, Pilar Alegría, who accompanied Felipe VI to the 20th anniversary of the newspaper 20 minutes at the Royal Theatre. Despite this, the list of those present was as varied as it was notable: former socialist general secretary Joaquín Almunia, former commissioner for European Affairs and former vice-president of the European Commission; Enrique Barón, minister of Felipe González’s first government; Adriana Lastra, government delegate in Asturias and former deputy general secretary of the PSOE; Maritcha Ruiz Mateos, former communications director of the PSOE; former president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, and Ander Gil, former president of the Senate; the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi; the president of Red Eléctrica, Beatriz Corredor…
The former government heavyweight experienced one of the most emotional moments of his term in government, when the dictator of the Valley of the Fallen, now Cuelgamuros, retired. “It was a very emotional moment when Franco was removed, leaving behind such a dark moment in our history,” said Calviño, who concluded with a message “of confidence and hope” to resolve the housing crisis. “The younger generations will have their opportunity,” he said with conviction.
—The book is very well written, have you thought about introducing yourself to the Planet? —García Montero hit by a bullet in the last question.
“Poet and provocateur,” laughed Calviño, avoiding the answer and sharing the good humor with the rest of the room. Then he sat for a long hour signing the books.
