Eduardo González
The new Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, spent the last few days visiting the main headquarters of the Department, where he “greeted and thanked” the staff of the Ministry for their work “for the interests of Spain” and received a wide representation of his already long list of predecessors, from whom he received “their advice, opinion and support”.
Albares began his ministerial tour on Wednesday with a visit to the Palace of Santa Cruz, the main headquarters of the Ministry, where he greeted the staff of the Department and thanked them for “their fundamental work for Spain and its interests abroad during these difficult months,” as reported by the minister via Twitter.
Yesterday, after attending the act of State tribute to the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic and recognition of health personnel, presided over by the King and Queen of Spain in the Plaza de la Armería of the Royal Palace in Madrid, Albares moved to the headquarters of Torres Ágora, where he also greeted the staff of the Ministry, whom he thanked “for their work in favor of the interests of Spain and of Spaniards abroad.” “We have a lot of work ahead of us but we have the best,” he declared via Twitter. Torres Ágora houses most of the staff attached to the Ministry, the four State Secretariats and a large part of the General Directorates. Foreign Affairs plans to leave this headquarters at the end of the year to return to its former location in the building in Plaza Marqués de Salamanca, once its rehabilitation has been completed.
José Manuel Albares then moved to the third main headquarters of the Ministry, the Palacio de Viana -official residence and representation of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs-, where he held a meeting with his predecessor, Arancha González Laya. At the end of this meeting, which lasted about half an hour, Albares offered a lunch to eight of his predecessors in office “to have their advice, opinion and support,” as Albares stated via the same social network. “Foreign policy is a state policy. We are working for Spain,” he added.
Present at the lunch were Carlos Westendorp (last Foreign Minister under Felipe González, PSOE); Abel Matutes, Josep Piqué and Ana Palacio (heads of the Department under José María Aznar, PP); Miguel Ángel Moratinos and Trinidad Jiménez (the two ministers under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, PSOE); Alfonso Dastis (last Foreign Minister under Mariano Rajoy, PP) and González Laya herself.
The meeting was not attended by José Manuel García-Margallo (first Foreign Minister under Rajoy and who was not present last Monday at the portfolio transfer, which was attended by Piqué and Palacio), Marcelino Oreja (from the UCD and Adolfo Suárez period and who was also present at Monday’s event); the current EU High Representative (and first head of diplomacy under Pedro Sánchez), Josep Borrell; and Javier Solana (who was a minister during the government of Felipe González).
