Pedro Sánchez highlights the enormous academic work and political experience of Joan Subirats, the new Minister for Universities

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The speech by the head of the Executive, which took place before the meeting of the Council of Ministers, was as follows:

"I appear before you to inform you of the appointment of the new Minister for Universities, of which I have already informed the Head of State, King Felipe VI.

We are therefore applying the constitutional mechanism set out in articles 62 and 100 of the Spanish Constitution, and consequently, this will be the last Council of Ministers to be attended by Manuel Castells following his resignation, as you know, for health reasons.

At this point I would like to thank Manuel Castells for his work and also for his dedication during these two years as Minister for Universities.

The admiration I already felt for Professor Castells is even greater after seeing his work in the Council of Ministers. His cosmopolitan, I would say cosmopolitan, vision of universities and his wide-ranging international experience have undoubtedly enriched university policy in our country.

Manuel Castells, as you know, is a researcher, a sociologist with an unquestionable background and recognition both within and beyond our borders, who has promoted enormously ambitions and important projects for the future of our universities.

Castells, in such difficult times for universities, as a consequence of the pandemic and also, logically, for teaching, developed a support policy for universities, not only through the approval of the draft bill on Universities, but also with the increase in grants for our young university students.

And I would also like to underline his character. Castells' good nature, his good tone, his capacity for dialogue, his reflective character, make him worthy of my recognition, wishing him luck and success in his new vital and also intellectual stage.

I will now inform you of the person who is going to join the Council of Ministers as the head of the Universities portfolio. This is Professor Joan Subirats.

Joan Subirats, as you know, is Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He has held multiple institutional and academic and political responsibilities.

He was, for example, the Prince of Asturias professor at Georgetown University. He has been a visiting professor at numerous universities and academic centres around the world and, therefore, his teaching and research experience, as well as his numerous publications, cover multiple fields from governance, management, public policy analysis, problems of democratic innovation, relations between the internet, politics and civil society, and multilevel governments.

Finally, in addition to his wide-ranging academic work, as I said before, he also has political experience, having held Cultural posts in Barcelona City Council, and the Office of Mayor, Culture, Education, Science and Community in Barcelona City Council.

In a message on social networks published this week by Subirats, he said that we need, and I quote, a policy that is less technocratic and delegative, more protective, closer, capable of empathising with the hardships of everyday life.

I am convinced that his presence in the Government and his new responsibility at the head of the Ministry of Universities will help us to continue with the way of doing politics that he referenced in that tweet.

Therefore, closeness, empathy, dialogue and respect must continue to be the maxims of the Government of Spain so that together we all manage to dignify political activity and strengthen democratic institutions with good manners, serenity and responsibility in the representation that each of us holds as the head of the different institutions.

The Government's objective, you know what it is. It is still the same: to ensure that Spain enjoys a fair economic recovery, to overcome the pandemic and to return Spain to the path of stability and political normality that Spaniards so long for and which we need to be able to consolidate this economic recovery.

The work of Professor Manuel Castells has contributed to all this, and I am convinced that Joan Subirats' work will also serve to continue along the same path, which is so appropriate for our country.

Thank you very much".

Non official translation