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Agence France-Presse

King Felipe VI on Thursday swore in Spain’s new pro-EU government with a record 11 women members including in key posts such as defence and economy, and six male ministers.
With just 84 seats in Spain’s 350-seat parliament, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s administration also has the smallest representation of any government since the country returned to democracy and it is not expected to last until the end of its mandate in 2020.
The new executive composed by the 46-year-old, who ousted conservative veteran Mariano Rajoy as prime minister last Friday in a no-confidence vote, includes astronaut Pedro Duque as science minister.
EU budget manager Nadia Calvino became economy minister and former European parliament president Josep Borrell foreign minister.
When Sanchez presented his cabinet on Wednesday evening he said it was “a reflection of the best in society” – a society he described as composed of women and men, old and young, rooted in the European Union.

But as a minority government it will have a tough time governing Spain, relying as it will on the votes of far-left party Podemos as well as Basque and Catalan nationalist lawmakers who supported his no-confidence motion.
Each new minister vowed to “faithfully fulfil the duties of minister … with loyalty to the king” at a ceremony at the Zarzuela palace near Madrid.
The new executive includes two veteran Socialists – Carmen Calvo, vice-president, and Borrell.
‘Mr Handsome’: who is Spain’s new PM Pedro Sanchez?
Calvo, who was culture minister from 2004 to 2007, will also be in charge of equality, a priority for Sanchez’s government in a country where women staged an unprecedented strike to defend their rights on March 8.
Anti-terror prosecutor Dolores Delgado became justice minister, former Supreme Court judge Margarita Robles defence minister, and other women have been put in charge of education, employment or health.

Fernando Grande-Marlaska, an openly gay former judge at Spain’s top-level National Court, where he took on cases against Basque separatist group ETA, heads up the interior ministry.
Women also lead the economic team of Sanchez’s government, whose “main priority” will be to respect Madrid’s deficit reduction commitments to the EU, the new prime minister has said.
Spain has promised to reduce its deficit to 2.2 per cent of GDP in 2018, thus finally going under the three per cent limit set by Brussels.
Calvino, the new economy minister, has 12 years of experience in high-level postings in Brussels.
Maria Jesus Montero, meanwhile, became budget minister after playing a similar role at a regional level in southern Andalusia.
In the name of maintaining “stability,” Sanchez has also promised to implement the 2018 budget crafted by the previous conservative government.

Among the budget’s key measures are a one to three per cent rise in the lowest pensions and a salary increase for civil servants, ahead of municipal, regional and European elections next year.
Sanchez’s new team also includes a minister in charge of science, innovation and universities.
And the man to take that role is Spain’s first astronaut Pedro Duque.
As Brexit gathers pace, and with Italy now led by a Eurosceptic, populist government, Spain’s new executive is distinctly pro-EU.
Apart from Calvino’s appointment as economy minister – a move welcome by the EU Commission – Borrell was European parliament president between 2004 and 2007.
A Catalan who is fiercely against the independence movement in his home region, Borrell will be tasked with defending his government’s commitment to Spanish unity abroad.
He has said the previous conservative government was “very bad” when it came to public relations abroad on the Catalan separatist issue.
On a day-to-day basis, Meritxell Batet, another Catalan, has been put in charge of relations with Spain’s regions.
As such, she will have the prickly task of trying to ease the situation in her own deeply divided home region.
Finally, Maxim Huerta, an award-winning author, became culture minister.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Spain

For first time, Spain’s government is dominated by women

Spain's King Felipe, centre, poses with the members of the new Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Photo: AP

epa06789488 Spanish Primer Minister Pedro Sanchez offers a press conference to announce his new cabinet at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 06 June 2018. EPA-EFE/MARISCAL

Members of the new Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wait for the start of a swearing ceremony, to take their position as new ministers at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, June 7, 2018. The government cabinet with most female ministers in Spanish and European history was sworn in Thursday, putting the cap on one of the fastest power transitions in the country's four decades of democratic rule. (J.J. Guillen/Pool Photo via AP)

Spain's new Justice Minister Dolores Delgado takes oath during a swearing-in ceremony at the Zarzuela Palace outside Madrid, Spain, June 7, 2018. J.J. Guillen/Pool via Reuters

‘Mr Handsome’: who is Spain’s new PM Pedro Sanchez?

Spain's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez smiles during a swearing-in ceremony at the Zarzuela Palace near Madrid. Photo: AP

Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez poses for photographers in the parliament after a motion of no confidence vote at the Spanish parliament in Madrid, Friday, June 1, 2018. Opposition Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has won the vote to replace Mariano Rajoy as prime minister, in the first ouster of a serving Spanish leader by parliament in four decades of democracy. (Emilio Naranjo/Pool Photo via AP)

epa06777679 A handout photo made available by the Spanish Prime Minister's Office shows ousted Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy (R), greeting his Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saez de Santamaria, in presence of Labour Minister, Fatima Banez (L), after he lost the no-confidence motion against him in a two-day debate at the Lower House in the Spanish Parliament in Madrid, Spain, 01 June 2018. New Prime Minister, leader of opposition PSOE party Pedro Sanchez, has won the vote to unseat Rajoy as Prime Minister in the first successful no-confidence vote in the Spanish democracy with 180 'yes' votes of PSOE, United Podemos, PNV, ERC, PDeCAT, Compromís, EH-Bildu, and Nueva Canarias. Now, Sanchez becomes the seventh Prime Minister of the Spanish democracy and will be swear-in by King Felipe VI in a ceremony to be held in the upcoming days. EPA-EFE/DIEGO CRESPO / SPANISH PRIME MINISTER OFFICE HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

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Margarita Robles was named defence minister, and Maria Jesus Montero will be finance minister. The posts of justice minister and education minister also went to women
