The regional Minister of Employment, Industry and Tourism, Francisco Blanco, will formalize in the next few hours his resignation and will allege professional reasons: the willing to return to academic life as a professor at the University. However, the internal tensions in the day-to-day management of his department, as well as differences within the Government, are also the causes for his resignation, although to a lesser extent according to the sources consulted. The Principality plans to imminently announce the cessation, brought about for months; but it has been postponed to prevent it being interpreted as a part of the internal dispute of the PSOE. We should not forget that Francisco Blanco initially supported Pedro Sánchez prior to his resignation as secretary general of the party, and that in the primaries he supported Patxi López, although he was seen at the end of the campaign at the event led by Josep Borrell and promoted by the ´sanchistas´ in Siero.
The resignation of Francisco Blanco goes back a long way. Months ago, he told the President of the Principality, Javier Fernández, his willing to resign office in order to return to the University. It was Fernández who asked Blanco, a noticeable supporter of Pedro Sánchez in the beginning, to postpone his resignation since it could be interpreted as a reaction to the disputes in the PSOE. The regional Minister accepted this request and agreed to postpone the cessation until the date of the primaries, although his request resign office intensified after his recent trip with Asturian entrepreneurs to Colombia and Mexico.
Once the election was resolved by the affiliates, Francisco Blanco again showed to Javier Fernández his willingness to resign. He did so last Monday, so the regional government began preparations to announce the cessation, which was scheduled to be announced at the end of the week for agenda reasons: Francisco Blanco has to submit today to three interpellations of the opposition on employment at the General Meeting, and next Friday a meeting of the executive of the FSA is schedule to analyze the results that led to the election of Pedro Sánchez as secretary general of the PSOE, beating the candidacy of the Andalusian Susana Díaz, who was supported by the whole Asturian regional government.
Francisco Blanco (Gijón, 1969) took over Graciano Torre at the regional ministry. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a PhD in Economics, and he is a practicing associate professor in the Public Economics area at the University of Oviedo. His researches have focused on public finances and pension systems, on which he has published various papers.
He was also economy and finance general director of the City Council of Gijón between 2007-2011 and city councillor and spokesman of the PSOE in the Commission of Finance between 2011 and 2015.
