A reorganization in the Basque Government
The Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, faces the task of making adjustments to his Government while he is in office and about to leave office after the April 21 elections. The second vice president and Minister of Labor and Employment, Idoia Mendia, presented her resignation this Friday after a face-to-face meeting with Urkullu, as confirmed by sources from the Basque Presidency. Mendia will be confirmed as a candidate in the European elections within the PSOE list headed by Teresa Ribera.
Temporary changes in the Government
Temporarily, the Minister of Tourism, Commerce and Consumption, Javier Hurtado, will also assume the portfolio of Labor and Employment and will have to take up his new functions as of Tuesday, April 30. The entire team of vice-counselors, directors and advisors will remain unchanged to guarantee an orderly transition from one legislature to the next, as indicated by the Mendia area.
Background and symbolism
Symbolically, Hurtado will not also assume the vice presidency, although he does not have differentiated powers and will remain vacant. There is a precedent for a temporary relief of this type, carried out by Mendia herself, who had to be acting Minister of the Interior for a few months due to the resignation of Rodolfo Ares during the Patxi López era and before the regional elections of 2012. It was the first woman in that portfolio.
Idoia Mendia’s career
Mendia made her debut as a counselor in 2009. In that López cabinet she was the spokesperson and head of Public Administration and Justice plus the final addition of the Interior. She later assumed the general secretary of the PSE-EE. She signed the first coalition pact with the PNV in 2016 but did not join the Government. She did it in 2020, the second time, with the rank of vice president and important functions such as Lanbide or the RGI. In this legislature she has approved the employment law and the benefits reform law, but she foundered in the attempt to make March 8 a holiday.
New stage in Europe
At 58 years old and already relieved at the head of the PSE-EE by Eneko Andueza, she will open a new stage in Europe. Internally, yes, she is a member of the federal leadership of the PSOE. She already has community experience and already has a ‘stage’ in the European Commission before returning to Euskadi and to the front line of politics. Mendia is married and her husband, Alfonso Gil, is a socialist senator elected by the Basque Parliament, also in office, since those seats must be renewed after the regional elections as well.