When, in 2018, Pedro Sánchez entrusted Teresa Ribera (Madrid, 1969) the portfolio of Ecological Transition, I already knew that with a single movement I shielded two spaces: the technical and the ideological. The facts have shown that he was not wrong. At this time, the one who was the guru verde of the former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has gained weight in the nucleus of maximum confidence of Sánchez, who chose her as his number two on the party’s electoral list in Madrid for 23-J. Looking ahead to the new legislature, Ribera will continue to lead the energy ministry and will maintain the position of third vice president.
If the team Government of Pedro Sánchez was a triangle, Ribera It would be, without a doubt, one of its points. In the last four years, the socialist has sealed a 180-degree turnaround in the Spanish energy model, with measures as controversial as the nuclear closure plan. It has also weathered the biggest energy crisis since the 1970s and has done so, on the one hand, placing Spain at the forefront of the electricity debate in Europe and, on the other, by burning bridges with the Ibex 35.
The head of energy policy He has lost many friends during his time in the Council of Ministers. Almost all of them, in the upper echelons of a sector where, from love to hate, there is a royal decree. Of Iberdrola, Endesa, Acciona, Repsol, Cepsa or Naturgy…There is not a large company in the sector in the Spanish market that has not had a scuffle with the head of energy policy.
The environmental ideology of Ribera was well known before his appointment since, between 2008 and 2011, he was Secretary of State for Climate Change in the second legislature of Zapatero. In addition, she was part of important international environmental institutions and worked in the group of experts that developed Sánchez’s electoral program in 2015.
Therefore, the most verde of the Ibex 35 She welcomed with euphoria the promotion to minister of someone convinced of the ecological cause. But, even the executives most sympathetic to the renewable postulates have ended up taking the path of grievance as the socialist has extended the Ministry’s control over its projects, its corporate operations and even over the accounts of its companies.