With Arcadi España as the new head of Finance, Sánchez attempts to close a political and technical vacuum at once, just as new public budgets are yet to be approved and the complex discussion on regional funding remains open. The cabinet's trajectory helps explain the wear and tear. The replacement announced this week placed Carlos Cuerpo as first vice president and Arcadi España at the helm of Finance, a move formalized in the BOE and presented by the president himself as a bet on the continuity of economic management at a delicate moment, with the 2026 budgets still pending and the government trying to mitigate the energy and fiscal impact derived from the war with Iran. The change is significant because Montero was not just any minister. The rest fell away due to early resignations, promotions, internal crises, or simple political reaccommodations. When Sánchez presented his first government on June 6, 2018, he spoke of preparation, experience, exemplary conduct, and democratic regeneration. España's profile is more discreet, with a strong territorial anchor and experience in the Valencian administration, but without the political weight of Montero. Carlos Cuerpo, for his part, strengthens the government's economic axis and becomes the first man appointed as first vice president by Sánchez, a signal of technocratic continuity amidst political wear and tear. The problem for Moncloa is that the rotation is no longer explained only by the natural renewal of a long project, but by a double pressure that is increasingly visible: the scandals that have worn down the ruling party and the electoral urgencies that force the shedding of key pieces. Madrid, March 27, 2026 - Total News Agency - TNA - The departure of María Jesús Montero from the heart of the Executive to lead the electoral fight in Andalusia once again exposed an era mark of Pedro Sánchez's long cycle in Moncloa: the instability of a cabinet subjected to political crises, European promotions, coalition tensions, and campaign needs. In parallel, the passage through the Council of Ministers of leaders from Podemos and then Sumar, in addition to the various reconfigurations of the coalition, was altering the internal balance of an Executive that went from showcasing high-impact names to increasingly resorting to management or apparatus profiles. The arrival of Arcadi España synthesizes this new stage. In that unstable balance, Sánchez continues to govern, but with fewer heavyweights, less parliamentary margin, and a cabinet that long ceased to be that founding showcase of 2018. To this wound was added in 2025 the fall of Santos Cerdán, then number three in the PSOE, whose resignation due to a judicial file aggravated the crisis of the ruling party to the point of leading to the entry of the Civil Guard into the socialist headquarters to retrieve documentation. Later came other high-voltage political departures. José Luis Ábalos, who had been one of the president's most trusted men, ended up sidelined from power and today faces a corruption case linked to the masks case alongside Koldo García. In addition to his weight in parliamentary and territorial negotiation, he was one of the most political figures of sanchismo. That backdrop finished eroding the political capital of a government that was already being hit by a succession of scandals. There were also other types of departures, less traumatic but equally significant: promotions to Europe. Nadia Calviño left the Executive to assume the presidency of the European Investment Bank on January 1, 2024, while Teresa Ribera became executive vice president of the European Commission. The comparison between the official composition of 2018 and the current one shows to what extent the Executive has been transformed almost completely. The first signs of fragility appeared right away. Màxim Huerta resigned six days later due to the fiscal scandal that enveloped him, and Carmen Montón left Health due to irregularities detected in her master's degree. Those movements reinforced the external projection of sanchismo, but also emptied the cabinet of two of its most solid figures with greater technical and political density. Her departure to compete in the Andalusian elections on May 17 confirms a pattern that has been repeated in recent years: ministers turned into candidates or pieces moved by electoral urgencies. It had already happened in December 2025, when Pilar Alegría left Education and the spokespersonship to focus on Aragon, which forced another remodeling with Milagros Tolón and Elma Saiz. That team included Màxim Huerta, Carmen Montón, Nadia Calviño, Teresa Ribera, José Luis Ábalos, Margarita Robles, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and Luis Planas, among others. Eight years later, from that original photo, only Robles in Defense, Grande-Marlaska in the Interior, and Planas in Agriculture remain in the same portfolios.
