Luis Ayllón
The Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) yesterday issued a note expressing its “concern” over the appointment of José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, former Minister of Culture and Sport, as Spain’s ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Rodríguez Uribes was appointed permanent delegate ambassador of Spain to Unesco, based in Paris, on 9 October, replacing Juan Andrés Perelló, who had held the post since August 2018.
Both Perelló, a former senator and former Socialist MEP, and Rodríguez Uribes are ‘political ambassadors’, as people who are appointed to head a mission without belonging to the diplomatic career are usually called.
Rodríguez Uribes, a member of the PSOE, was Government Delegate in the Community of Madrid between June 2018 and April 2019, and Minister of Culture and Sports from January 2020, until July of this year, when he was replaced in the post by Miquel Iceta.
The ADE, which brings together more than 60% of the members of the Diplomatic Career, has already expressed on other occasions its disagreement with the appointment of “political ambassadors”, as in the case of Carmen Montón, former Minister of Health under Pedro Sánchez, appointed ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS).
The Association, while recognising the competence and discretion of the Government in the appointment of ambassadors, stresses in its note, to which The Diplomat had access, that “members of the diplomatic career have a high degree of suitability, accumulated experience and accredited professional competence to carry out the functions of head of mission with total efficiency and loyalty to the Government, in defence of the interests of Spain and our nationals, including the accreditation of heads of mission to multilateral organisations such as UNESCO”.
The note states that the appointment of ‘political ambassadors’ “undermines the natural professional aspirations of civil servants in the diplomatic career, based on the principles of equality, merit and ability invoked for access to the civil service”.
Currently, in addition to Rodríguez Uribes and Carmen Montón, the ambassadors who do not belong to the diplomatic career are Ángel Martín Peccis in Cuba, Ángel Ros in Andorra, and Manuel Escudero at the OECD.
Recently, in his appearance before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies to speak about the General State Budget, the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Cuesta, affirmed that 97.5% of Spanish embassies have a diplomat as head of mission.
