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Mendez de Vigo replaces Wert as Spanish education minister

Xinhua, June 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Thursday made a change to his government when he replaced Jose Ignacio Wert as Minister for Education, Culture and Sport with Secretary of State for European Affairs, Inigo Mendez de Vigo.

Mendez de Vigo will officially take over as education minister on Friday, but with a maximum of five months, two of which are during the holiday period, until the next general election.

Opinion polls have consistently shown Wert to have been the least popular of Rajoy's cabinet as he pushed a much-criticized education reform: the Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality, through Congress.

The imposition of a sales tax of 21 percent on theater and cinema tickets also saw Wert have to withstand criticism from that sector and in 2013 he failed to attend the annual Goya Awards for Spanish cinema.

What is surprising about the timing of what is only the fourth change in Rajoy's cabinet since 2011, is that it came a week after he had been expected to announce changes in his government only to make cosmetic changes in the organization of his ruling Popular Party. Endit