Margarita Robles opted for Pedro Sánchez, and her loyalty earned her the Ministry of Defence. Robles, the first woman to preside over a contentious chamber, to reach a hearing and the third to join the Supreme Court, chose politics in 1993, when Felipe González appointed her undersecretary of Justice. Socialist without a card but with an ideology, he continues one more term after 30 years dedicated to the PSOE with the last five at the head of the Ministry of Defence.
Robles was in the pools of Pedro Sanchez From the beginning. So, how deputy He never gave up in his defense of the leader of the PSOE, also when the party barons kicked him out. He arrived at Ministry in June 2018. A feminist, she surrounded herself with women on her team. She put the former mayor of Burgos, Angel Olivaresas first Secretary of State for Defense, but replaced him by Esperanza Casteleiro in 2020. Intelligence Official, in 2022 she was appointed director of the National Intelligence Center in place of Paz Esteban.
The change was one of the great controversies and crises that the minister. The Government is ultimately responsible for all the missions of the spanish intelligence. Esteban was the main political victim of the by chance Pegasus In mid-April 2022, the Government detected that the mobile phone of the president, the Minister Roblesby Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior and Luis Planas, responsible for Agriculture. They were infected with this Israeli spy tool. Catalan independence political forces they forced the appearance of Esteban in the Official Secrets Commission of the Congress of Deputies. To maintain peace in the coalition, Robles dismissed Esteban. The former director is accused after a complaint filed by Pere Aragonès. That is one of the most complicated legacies for Robleswhich leaves the portfolio without resolving this crisis.
Robles He tried to fix the situation with the appointment of Esperanza Casteleiro as director. A success, because she sent a person from the house to direct it. Instead, she entrusted Amparo Valcarce the Secretary of State for Defense. But Robles changed the framework of operation of the agents deployed in Catalonia and the Basque Country, giving in to the demands of the independence movement.
The minister also had a leading role during the Covid crisis, being one of the four authorities responsible for manage the pandemic. The Army launched operation Balmis. The work of the Military Emergency Unit disinfecting thousands of residences and the rest of the units in citizen surveillance tasks earned Robles great popularity among the people, which reached 68% approval citizen and became the most beloved minister in the coalition government.