ECB’s Guindos Is Ruling Out Return to Spain After July Election

(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos is ruling out returning to Spain after the snap elections next month if the centre-right Popular Party wins, according to people familiar with his thinking.

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The 63-year-old Spaniard is happy in the position he’s currently holding and considers his ECB role key for his home country and Europe, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter is private. His non-renewable eight-year term in Frankfurt runs through June 2026. An ECB spokesperson declined to comment.

Guindos was Spain’s economy minister from 2011 to 2018 and has been the subject of local media speculation as a potential candidate to run the economic team in a possible government led by the conservative PP, which is currently ahead the polls.

Other names that have been circulating are Luis Garicano, a former European lawmaker and the economic mastermind behind liberal party Ciudadanos, and the governor of the Spanish central bank, Pablo Hernández de Cos.

Guindos’s old boss in his early years, former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato, became the economic heavyweight during the government of Jose Maria Aznar. As vice president, he combined the ministries of economy and public finances, providing an example of what options Guindos might have in a future PP government.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called snap elections for July 23, following the poor results of his Socialist Party in the local and regional elections last month. Spanish voters had previously been set to vote at the end of this year.

--With assistance from Alonso Soto and Rodrigo Orihuela.

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