At the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) held in Santiago de Compostela in September, Nadia Calviño (A Coruña, 1968) not only worked with her European counterparts to reach an agreement and sought support for to his candidacy for the European Investment Bank (EIB), but he had time to sit down with the protocol team and design the best distribution of attendees at the tables. The anecdote describes the personality of the person in charge of the Spanish economy for five years now who is leaving to chair the EIB and who has been characterized by hyperactivity in all areas.
He has been one of the most trusted and loyal people to President Pedro Sánchez. So much so, that he is part of the scarce half a dozen faces that survive from that first council of ministers in June 2018. His orthodoxy has marked a large part of the economic policies by curbing the positions of the successive allies of the governments led by Sánchez. And he did it without having the PSOE card.
The people closest to his team explain how he has been working with the same intensity until the last day because – they say – he doesn’t know how to do it any other way. That is why it is surprising how in 2019 – after a few months of taking the reins of the ministry – she already opted for a powerful international position, that of managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Those who know her explain that she is convinced that if Spain wants to have options in the big bodies, the candidate must have the rank of minister, at least. The truth is that Calviño has tried several times until he finally succeeded with the BEI. For many years he worked in Brussels and longed to return to an international body. It’s like coming home.
Its image in the successive governments of Sánchez has been that of the dyke of containment of the political demands of the allies, eternally unsatisfied. Perhaps, if it were for her, the measures against the pandemic in the harsh spring of 2020 would have been more lax, while now no one questions the suitability and correctness of the decisions taken, such as guarantees to companies or regulatory files temporary employment
Discussions with Podemos (now with Sumar), but also with other allies such as ERC or Bildu have been a constant. This same month, the existing discrepancies between Calviño and Yolanda Díaz surfaced regarding the new unemployment benefit. But in the end the Pactist way in the purest Brussels style, of which she is an advanced disciple, has always prevailed. Discussions about the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), labor reform or rent management were heard.
Despite the fact that the label of being the most technocrat in the Spanish Government is always attached to her, Calviño has intervened in debates of popular consumption and the general public and that generate big headlines that align with the left. This is what happened when he criticized the high salaries of bankers or the reduced (or non-existent) remuneration of deposits by financial institutions. Although many times they remained in statements and there was, for example, control of bank remunerations and no action was taken with deposits.
Precisely she is also one of the people responsible for the largest banking merger operation in the history of Spain, when CaixaBank absorbed Bankia. An operation that leaves it partially unfinished, as the State continues to hold the bank’s capital.
In the public sphere, Calviño is without a doubt the Minister of Economy who has granted the most interviews to the press throughout history. Although not always giving news. Prudence is another of his currencies. In addition, it has had an overwhelming participation in social networks. She usually makes short summaries on the networks of her interventions, as a public servant that she is.
Feminist without nuances she even refused to participate in a protocol event in which she was the only woman who appeared on the stage.
Graduated in Economic and Business Sciences and Law (2001) from the UNED, she is an employee of the State Administration as a member of the body of State Commercial Technicians and Economists. Even though he didn’t study protocol, he has a perfect command of the situation and where and what everyone has to do. Also herself.
