The domino effect caused by the departure of José Luis Escrivá from the Government continues. The minister who replaced him, Oscar Lopezhas restructured the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Civil Service; changes that have led to Antonio Hernandountil now deputy director of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, to leave Moncloa to be Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure.
The appointment will be carried out this Tuesday at the Council of Ministers. Antonio Hernando will thus replace Maria Gonzalez Veracruzwho in turn will hold the position of Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence.
Hernando was one of the faces of the PSOE during Sánchez’s first term as secretary general of the party. In fact, he was the spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Congress of Deputies between 2014 and 2017. However, Hernando distanced himself from Sánchez during the crisis that shook Ferraz during Mariano Rajoy’s investiture in 2016. Sánchez handed over his seat as deputy and Hernando stepped forward in the group while the socialist primaries were being held, which Sánchez would win against Susana Díaz and Patxi López.
Life and work
His friendship with Sánchez, and also with Óscar López, was forged during the period of Jose Blanco as Secretary of Organization (2000/2008). There, under the tutelage of Blanco, the three developed their profiles.
Precisely, it was with Blanco that, in 2019 (already out of politics after Sánchez’s return) He founded the public affairs consultancy Acentowhere he worked and was an administrator and partner until October 2021, when at the 40th Federal Congress of the PSOE, held in Valencia, Sánchez brought him back, thus closing the open wound.
He was appointed Deputy Director of the Cabinet of the President of the Government. He was dismissed in June 2023 at his own request in order to be able to run in the 2023 general elections as head of the list for Almería and, after obtaining his seat, he resigned from it to return to the same position in Moncloa.
The professional career and Hernando’s policy prior to 2016 is extensive. He has a degree in Law and a Master’s degree in International Trade. He was lawyer Practicing lawyer for the UGT (1992/1994); Secretary General of the Spanish Commission for Aid to Refugees (1995/1996); Vice President of the Association of Moroccan Immigrant Workers in Spain (1996/2000); Head of the Legal Department of the Association for the Promotion of Social Services (1997) and Deputy Director of the Spanish Catholic Association for Migration (1997/2001).
At the political level, he has been an advisor to the Federal Secretariat for Social and Migration Policies of the Federal Executive Commission; advisor to the Secretariat for Organization; Secretary of Municipal Policy for the PSOE; Secretary of Institutional Relations and Autonomous Policy; and a member of parliament for Madrid (since 2004).
The legacy of Escrivá
The Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service is, along with Health, one of the most iron has ahead for the coming months. With the Draft Law on the Civil Service of the State Administration In Congress, one of its priorities is the promotion of a Country Agreement for Artificial Intelligencea milestone that would pave the way for transposing all European legislation on the subject. It should be remembered that The European Parliament has already approved an AI Law.
Escrivá guaranteed that before the end of 2024 he would begin the procedures to bring to Congress a Cybersecurity Law; and in parallel, the Preliminary Draft approved by the Council of Ministers on the Protection of minors in digital environments. Also, in the last stages of 2024, looking towards 2025, it aims to implement a new model to eliminate the replacement rate of civil servants.
The reform of the Common Administrative Procedure Law to eliminate the obligation of prior appointments and the creation of a Agency for evaluating public policies.
