The Diplomat
Calls by the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) for the Government to cease the practice of appointing former ministers or former socialist leaders with no relevant international track record as ambassadors appear to have fallen on deaf ears, if it is confirmed that former president of the Generalitat Valenciana Ximo Puig will head Spain’s permanent representation to the OECD, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The news that Puig may replace Manuel Escudero in the Permanent Representation came to light on Friday, after it emerged that the PSPV secretary general and former president of the Generalitat Valenciana from 2015 to 2023 intends to leave his position in the party and his seat in the Autonomous Parliament. His appointment could become a reality at next Tuesday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers.
Puig will not be the first ‘political’ ambassador to the OECD, where the former Secretary of State for Trade Elena Pisonero, from 2000 to 2004; and the former Minister of Education José Ignacio Wert, from 2015 to 2018, José Ignacio Wert, have already held the post under PP governments. In 2018, with the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to La Moncloa, the former Socialist MP Manuel Escudero took over the Delegation to the OECD.
With this appointment, the former Valencian president joined the list of former ministers or former Socialist leaders appointed by the Sánchez government to head embassies, a practice that has been spreading, and which is mainly found in multilateral organisations. Thus, in the Permanent Representation to UNESCO – where María Jesús San Segundo, former Minister of Education under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was from 2006 to 2010 – there has been no diplomat since 2018. That year, the Valencian socialist leader Juan Andrés Perelló was appointed, until he left the post in 2021 to head Casa Mediterráneo. Perelló was relieved by José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, who had just left his post as Minister of Culture. His newly appointed replacement was Miquel Iceta, also a former culture minister.
Diplomats fear that the spread of ‘political’ appointments will continue, after for the first time in the history of democracy, someone from outside the diplomatic career has been appointed permanent representative ambassador to the United Nations in New York: the former Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Héctor Gómez.
Similarly, they believe that the Embassy to the Organisation of American States (OAS), based in Washington, which has been occupied since March 2020 by the former Minister of Health Carmen Montón, could end up in the hands of another Socialist leader, if not now, then in the near future.
In addition, former Education Minister Isabel Celáa is currently ambassador to the Vatican and another non-diplomat – Ángel Martín Peccis – has been ambassador to Cuba for more than three years.
