The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has decided that the Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function, the socialist Carolina Darias, will be the new head of the Health portfolio and will assume the management of the coronavirus pandemic. The Canary Islander arrives at the post in the midst of the third wave and with infections skyrocketing, replacing Salvador Illa, who has left the post to lead the PSC candidacy in the Catalan elections on February 14.
Darias, born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1965, holds a degree in Law from the University of La Laguna, belongs to the Superior Corps of General Administrators of the Public Administration of the Canary Islands, and has spent twenty years holding various public positions, starting with her first position as a councilor in 1999 in her hometown, and passing through the Presidency of the Parliament of the Canary Islands or the Government Delegation in the islands.
When she assumed the Ministry of Territorial Policy in January 2020, Darias was the Minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment of the socialist Government of the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands politician was one of the new faces of the coalition Executive that Sánchez designed together with Unidas Podemos, since she was not part of the previous PSOE government alone. When she was appointed, Moncloa highlighted that she "combines a technical profile with a political character".
Sánchez has confirmed during this Tuesday's Council of Ministers the appointment of Darias, almost a month after she was placed as the favorite to replace Illa, when the Catalan's intention to leave the Ministry to aspire to lead the Generalitat became public.
From the central government, they emphasize that the Canary Islands socialist has been participating with Illa since October in the meetings of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS), and is "fully aware of the vaccination process".
In her role as head of Territorial Policy, Darias has been in charge of supervising in recent months the relationship with the autonomous communities and the co-governance strategy that the Government launched in the summer to delegate to the autonomous governments the adoption of measures in the fight against the coronavirus.
The replacement of Darias by Illa also entails the entry into the Executive of the leader of the PSC, Miquel Iceta, to occupy the vacancy that the Canary Islander leaves in the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Function.
