Rovira Settles in Treasury to Sharpen the Discourse on Underfunding

Juanfran Pérez Llorca, the new president of the Generalitat, is viewed with complete distrust by the opposition. His constant appeals for dialogue and consensus contrast with the lack of communication with the left and the stalemate in all negotiable fronts between the two blocs for over a year in Les Corts. Now, Pérez Llorca claims his main concern is "rebuilding the broken bridges" with the Government. However, this possibility also depends on Sánchez's Executive, and given the possibility that the socialists might further harden their positions regarding the Community, the new president seems to have decided to secure a ministry, that of Treasury, where dialogue with the Government is a constant. For good words and if there is goodwill, Pérez Llorca, but if the situation continues as it is: José Antonio Rovira.

The former Minister of Education and new head of Treasury turned 63 in August. He does not have a promising career ahead nor does he cultivate a profile of pleasing everyone. On the contrary, Rovira has unmistakable and unavoidable political traits, a colour so evident that in the Ministry of Education he stumbled upon numerous obstacles in a department that requires a lot of diplomacy and a desire to please. As this is not Rovira's case, his clash with some elements of the educational landscape was evident from the first minute of the legislature.

Now he moves to Treasury, a ministry with matters that will be familiar to him. A graduate in economic sciences, he has been an associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics and Economic Policy at the University of Alicante. But above all, he settles in a department from which pressure is attempted on the Ministry of Treasury with underfunding as a banner. Rovira can be very harsh, and this assertiveness is known by the entire Consell and his PP colleagues.

If he lands in Treasury, it is precisely because if the good words and intentions initially proposed by Pérez Llorca are not reciprocated by the central Government, someone will have to raise the tone. Until now, this task was to be carried out by Ruth Merino, a person recruited from Ciudadanos directly by Mazón, a recruitment whose credit seems to have ended with the departure of the previous president, thus giving way to a profile with greater capacity for confrontation.