The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers yesterday appointed the former president of the Valencian Generalitat Ximo Puig as the new ambassador, permanent representative of Spain to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which has its headquarters in Paris.
Ximo Puig, leader of the Valencian socialists, presented his resignation on Monday as a senator as a representative of the Valencian Community, a position he reached after losing the last regional elections.
As The Diplomat reported last December, the Government of Pedro Sánchez offered Puig the option of becoming another politician who is allowed to head an Embassy after being left out of the Executive or another position of responsibility.
Thus, Puig will replace the former socialist deputy Manuel Escudero in the position, who has held it since the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to La Moncloa in 2018.
The former Valencian president joins, in this way, other politicians who have been in charge of the Permanent Representation to the OECD. In fact, in the last 30 years, only one diplomat -Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner, between 2011 and 2015- has held that position. The Socialist Governments appointed as ambassadors to the OECD the former Minister of Industry Claudio Aranzadi (1993-1996), the commercial advisor Fernando Ballestero (2004-2008), the former Minister of the Environment and today president of the PSOE, Cristina Narbona (2008- 2011); and the aforementioned Manuel Escudero (2018-2024). For their part, the PP governments appointed the economist Luis Feito (1996-2000), the former Secretary of State for Commerce Elena Pisonero (2000-2004) and the former Minister of Education José Ignacio Wert (2015-2018).
Ximo Puig joins the list of former ministers or socialist leaders appointed ambassadors by the Government of Pedro Sánchez, a practice that has been repeatedly criticized by the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE), especially when recently, for the first time In the history of democracy, someone not belonging to the Diplomatic Career was appointed permanent representative ambassador to the United Nations in New York: the former Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Héctor Gómez.
This type of appointment occurs, above all, in multilateral organizations and thus, for example, in the Permanent Representation to UNESCO – where María Jesús San Segundo, former Minister of Education under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was between 2006 and 2010 – , since 2018 there has been no diplomat. That year, the Valencian socialist leader Juan Andrés Perelló was appointed, until in 2021 he left the position to direct Casa Mediterráneo. Perelló was replaced by José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, who had just stopped being Minister of Culture. His replacement, appointed several weeks ago, is Miquel Iceta, also former Minister of Culture.
The Permanent Representation of Spain to the Organization of American States (OAS), based in Washington, has been occupied, since March 2020, by the former Minister of Health Carmen Montón, and the Embassy to the Vatican, by the former Minister of Education Isabel Celaa.
Another ‘political’ ambassador with connections with socialist leaders -Ángel Martín Peccis-, has been ambassador in Cuba for more than three years, but will leave the position as soon as the Cuban authorities grant permission for him to be appointed as representative of Spain in Havana. the diplomat Javier Hergueta.
