The third place in relevance of the political and institutional framework of the Region of Murcia has been occupied since Tuesday by a woman, after the Council of Ministers appointed Caridad Rives from Cartagena as the new Government delegate in the Region of Murcia, replacing José Vélez, who from now on will focus on his responsibility as a candidate of the Murcian PSOE for the Presidency of the Autonomous Community.
Rives has a degree in Exact Sciences from the University of Murcia and has been a career civil servant since 2008 in the Body of Secondary Education Teachers. Her political career has been developed almost exclusively in the Cartagena City Council, where she has been a councilor between 1999 and 2015. In the 2011 municipal elections, she competed as a candidate for mayor for the PSOE, but was swept away by the popular Pilar Barreiro, who won 19 of the 27 councilors at stake, while Rives only got five, four less than in the previous elections.
The Government Delegation is not new to her, since she has been working in this institution since February 2021, first as High Inspector in the Education Area, and since last January as director of the Promotion Area.
She is the second woman to hold the main position of the State Administration in the Region of Murcia, after Concepción Sáenz Laín, also a socialist, did so between 1990 and 1994, appointed by the then Interior Minister José Luis Corcuera.
surprise appointment
The appointment of Caridad Rives to the position came as a surprise to most of the PSOE in the Region of Murcia. The already ex-delegate of the Government knew how to maintain the necessary reserve during the last days and prevented the name of the Cartagena from appearing among the pools that have circulated in the political cabals. Until this Tuesday, a few hours before the appointment was announced, José Vélez did not give any clue about his successor. It was at the beginning of an award ceremony held in Murcia when he, when asked about it, announced that the appointment of the “new delegate … or delegate” would take place that same morning.
The leader of the Murcian PSOE, from whom the proposal that the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday, has opted for a “low profile” for whoever replaces him in the Government Delegation, according to the most widespread analysis in the party, since Caridad Rives hardly has organic power in Cartagena nor until now did it count in the party’s future prospects.
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With his appointment a trend forged by his predecessors is truncated, consisting of the Government Delegation being the institutional springboard used by the general secretaries of the PSRM-PSOE before competing as candidates for the Presidency of the Community in the regional elections. This situation has occurred in the three previous socialist tenants of the headquarters on Avenida Teniente Flomesta: Rafael González Tovar, Diego Conesa and José Vélez.
Party sources see in Rives the confirmation of a hypothesis considered within the party in recent days, according to which it was possible to choose to appoint someone with little political prominence and organic weight to occupy the position provisionally until the elections. generals scheduled for the end of the year, after which, in the event that Pedro Sánchez managed to continue in Moncloa, the appointment of a government delegate with greater political projection for the entire legislature would take place.
Farewell to Velez
José Vélez used a video, distributed by the Government Delegation itself, to take stock and say goodbye to the position, which he arrived in February 2020 after leaving the Calasparra mayor’s office. In this recording he indicates that he is leaving his position to focus on another responsibility that, however, “pursues the same objective: to seek growth and progress in the Region of Murcia.”
He admits that they have been three years “especially intense” but “tremendously gratifying” in which he has verified “the dimension and importance that the Government of Spain has to transform and improve the lives of citizens.”
All this, he adds, “thanks to the thousands of State officials who work in the Region and who carry out from their responsibilities the drive and political will of the Government of Spain.” In his speech, he made a “special recognition” for the National Police and the Civil Guard “for their loyalty and for a job that guarantees our freedoms and allows us to enjoy our rights as citizens of this Region.”
“My greatest gratitude must be for all the citizens of the Region, for the example, patience, civic, tolerant, understanding and committed attitude that they have shown during this time in very complicated situations”, according to Vélez, who points out that this This behavior is what “reaffirms” him in the “need to recover politics as that common space in which to raise and resolve issues of general interest.” “In this, and for this reason, I will continue working from my responsibility as a candidate for the Presidency of this wonderful Region,” he concludes.
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