The Diplomat
Arancha González Laya will receive 89,829 euros in compensation after having been Minister of Foreign Affairs for a year and a half, according to information provided by the Conflict of Interest Office to the website “Maldita.es”.
The publication requested the information from the aforementioned office, in accordance with the Transparency Law, in order to find out the amounts received by the ministers who left the government during the crisis of 10 July.
According to this information, the former ministers of Science, Pedro Duque; Education, Isabel Celaá; and Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, claimed to receive the compensation that corresponds to them as former senior officials of the Executive. The former Chief of Staff of the Presidency, Iván Redondo, also requested it, and José Luis Ábalos, former Minister of Transport, did not, because this compensation is incompatible with his position as a Member of Parliament.
According to the Law on Senior Public Officials, those who receive any other salary, whether from the private or public sector, are not entitled to receive compensation – which is 80 percent of their salary for a maximum of two years.
The General State Budget for 2021 states that the salary of a minister is 74,858 euros per year, of which they will receive 80 percent. Duque and Celaá will receive 119,772 euros for the maximum of two years established, while González Laya, who was only in the government for a year and a half, will receive 89,829 euros for the same period of time. Under the current budget, each former minister receives 4,990 euros per month.
