Sanchez ended weeks of speculation by announcing that Cuerpo will replace Nadia Calvino, who is set to head the European Investment Bank.

Cuerpo, 43, is expected to be sworn in by King Felipe later today.

With the reshuffle, Sanchez also promoted budget minister Maria Jesus Montero to be his first deputy prime minister, a position until now held by Calvino. Montero was previously fourth in the line of succession.

Since Montero is the Socialist Party’s No 2 and considered one of Sanchez’s most loyal supporters, the change reads like an ideological shift by Sanchez’s new government, in power since November but lacking an outright majority in parliament.

Cuerpo, a high-level Spanish civil servant since 2008, has played a key role in discussions on the European Union’s new package of fiscal rules in his capacity as the negotiator for Spain’s rotating presidency.

Like Calvino, Cuerpo worked within the European Commission, making him familiar with the inner workings of Brussels’ complex bureaucracy.

Cuerpo holds a PhD in economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a Master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Those who have worked with him describe him as “gentle and friendly”.

Calvino, 55, had been the economy minister – a post that in Spain encompasses many aspects of public finances – since June 2018, when Sanchez first became prime minister.

Widely seen as a technocrat, she is a career civil servant and not a member of Sanchez’s Socialist Party.

Spain has put Calvino forward for several top jobs since 2019, including chair of the Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers and head of the International Monetary Fund, a position that eventually went to Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva.

Calvino spearheaded Spain’s economic response to the pandemic with an unprecedented €200 billion package in 2020 and has managed the implementation of the EU’s pandemic relief package.

After holding senior posts in Spain’s economy ministry, she went to the European Commission in 2006, and in 2014 was appointed the Commission’s director-general for the budget. She has been the chair of the IMF steering committee since December 2021.