The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, begins his last 24 hours at the head of the Ministry this Monday to focus exclusively on his candidacy for the Generalitat for the PSC. As Moncloa advances, this Tuesday will be his last Council of Ministers and then his replacement in Health will be known.
This Monday is Illa’s last full day as minister. One of his last acts has been the visit to the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products together with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. His resignation will prevent him from carrying out the appearance in Congress announced this week for next Thursday and in which he had to render an account of the health evolution and the state of alarm.
The replacement of Illa in front of Health will be known on Tuesday and will be formalized on Wednesday at the Palacio de la Zarzuela, where the inauguration of the new head of the department will take place. Until now everything pointed to the Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function, although the name of Silvia Calzón, epidemiologist and Secretary of State for Health since August, sounds in some forums.
Illa’s departure has given rise to several speculations about the government crisis that Sánchez will face, none confirmed by Moncloa. First, the possibility of the minister combining both ministries was assessed. Then the possible entry of the PSC leader and former candidate for the elections, Miquel Iceta, to the Government team at the head of Territorial Policy came to the fore and now Calzón, number two of Illa, sounds like a possible replacement.
Illa was confirmed as on December 30, 2020, but he always assured that he would remain in the Ministry until the election campaign began, which he will do officially this Friday unless the justice pronounces otherwise.
And it is that it is waiting for the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) to confirm the precautionary suspension of the one approved by the Government as a preventive measure due to the pandemic but which was appealed up to six times. The possibility that the resolution of the appeals would arrive too late to prevent the celebration of 14-F in his case, led the court to maintain the original date decreed for the elections.
The date change was not exempt from criticism of electoral opportunism. The PSC, leader according to the polls, was the only party that maintained its refusal to move the date until the last moment. The change in it is also closely related to the home confinement that Health refuses to decree.
However, the socialists apply the same political argument to those seeking postponement, understanding that, faced with polls that either sink or disintegrate their majorities, they urgently need to spend a few months to reverse the situation.
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