There was a time when government ministers were important and easily recognizable by the public. I am talking about several decades ago, when many Spanish cabinets were made up of politicians of substance and politics itself was also much more attractive to the public, who followed it with much higher interest than today. It is a curious fact, that having more media has not been accompanied by a greater interest in the people who govern us. This reflection is valid for almost all public institutions and there would not be much difference between a government of the Generalitat of Catalonia and a leadership team from the Barcelona City Council, where, at most, two or three of the names are known - you just have to look at what the opinion polls say.
This Monday the Spanish ministers Reyes Maroto and Carolina Darias have resigned as heads of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and of Health, respectively. Neither of them leaves a significant imprint for their political management, although, of course, some achievements can be quoted. Prime minister Pedro Sánchez, who put together his government not thinking of incorporating the best from each political space, but rather as a platform for other political adventures, has sent them to dispute the mayoralties of Madrid and of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria respectively, with the first currently in the hands of the PP and the second already held by the PSOE itself, with incumbent Augusto Hidalgo being displaced so that Darias can take over the Gran Canaria council. These two changes add up to the fifth cabinet reshuffle for Pedro Sánchez, who has launched a total of five ministers towards different electoral contests in the four and a half years that he has been in the Moncloa. A situation light years away from what had happened with previous prime ministers: with Rajoy, ministers only went off to contest other elections on two occasions in the eight years that he was PM.
A pattern very similar to that of Rajoy was also seen under Zapatero in the 2004-2011 period, whose decisions also led to just two ministers, curiously enough both Catalans, José Montilla and Celestino Corbacho, who contested elections other than the Spanish ones. Normally, these changes do not go well and the case of Montilla was an exception, since he managed to govern the Generalitat of Catalonia. It is true that popularity helps, but, in the end, people know perfectly well how to distinguish when a candidate is injected into a campaign with a suitable CV for the position for which they are standing. Although he hasn't achieved power so far, Salvador Illa's jump from the Spanish health ministry to the Catalan elections of February 2011 can also be regarded as successful, since he secured first place in the elections for the PSC, although an agreement between ERC, Junts and the CUP, today smashed into a thousand slivers, left him without the presidency of the Generalitat.
To replace Reyes Maroto and Carolina Darias, Pedro Sánchez has chosen two politicians currently unknown to the general public, Héctor Gómez and José Manuel Miñones. The latter is already aiming to be a PSOE candidate in the next elections in Galicia, which would be in the summer of 2024 if they are not called early. This incessant parade of ministers with scanty résumés reminds us of the debate on substitutions, and the issue that, after so much preaching about gender parity, we have two female ministers leaving and two males entering, as well as whether it is necessary for the cabinet to have so many places (22) or on the contrary executives should return to the more compact sizes of the days of Rajoy (13) and Felipe González (16). Although everything is debatable, there are no reasons for such broad executives except for those that are justified by a coalition government and the need to have the greatest number of portfolios. And even with this, cabinets are better when they are smaller and more cohesive than the multitude that exists today, many members of which are completely unknown and perfectly interchangeable.