The Popular Party has proposed Fernando Fernández Méndez de Andés, a doctor in economics, as director of the Bank of Spain, after Antonio Cabrales, whom the political formation had initially proposed, resigned after his appointment was approved by the Council of Ministers.
According to PP sources, Fernández Méndez de Andés has a technical profile of recognized prestige. He was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and is an international consultant on macroeconomic, regulatory and financial issues.
In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Spanish Institute of Financial Advisors (IEAF) and of the Foundation for Financial Research (FEF), of the Bruegel Scientific Council in Brussels, and is currently director of the Euro Yearbook, edited by FEF and ICO Foundation. Author of academic and topical publications, he has collaborated as an external expert for the European Court of Auditors and the European Parliament, and was a member of the Committee of Experts for the Reform of the Spanish Tax System.
He has also been Chancellor of the University of Nebrija and the European University of Madrid and a director of Red Electric Corporación. The PP has proposed Fernández Méndez de Andés to occupy one of the six advisory positions that make up the governing council of the Bank of Spain after the resignation of Cabrales.
His resignation came shortly after The Objective published that the professor had signed a letter in April 2018 in support of the former Minister of Education of the Generalitat of Catalonia Clara Ponsatí, who fled to Brussels with Carles Puigdemont after the illegal referendum on 1 October 2017.
