Spain's richest (and poorest) ministers

Miguel Arias Cañete
Richest Minister

Arias Cañete (€1.7million) is the richest minister and Ana Pastor (€200,000), the poorest · Mariano Rajoy declares €1.2m

MADRID Miguel Arias Cañete, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, is the government's richest minister, having declared a net worth of over €1.7m, above that of Government President Mariano Rajoy's €1.2m These and many more figures were published in the BOE (Boletín Oficial del Estado) last week. The aim of the obligation to declare one's interests are aimed at ensuring no conflict of interest arises by senior members of the government. However, Arias Cañete has been called to task about his connections to the family fuel bunkering business (reported here).

However, the Cabinet ministers are not in fact the richest senior members of the government. At the top of that list is the Secretary of State for Defense and former President of Boeing España, Pedro Argüelles, who declared a net worth of €18.1 million. He is followed by the Secretary of State for Education, Montserrat Gomendio, with €14.5m.

The 'poorest', is Minister for Development Ana Pastor, who declared €185,731 and debts of over €83,000.

Mariano Rajoy's €1.2m are made up of real estate properties worth €425,555 and other items totalling €835,674, including family inheritances. After Rajoy, it is José Manuel Soria, Minister of Industry, whose net worth is the same as his boss's, €1.2m.

After Soria comes the Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, with €1.1, followed by the Defense Minister, Pedro Morenés, with a touch over the one million euros mark; and the Minister for Employment, Fátima Báñez, also with just over the million, although she did declare debts of €149,000.

Close to that figure, too, is José Manuel García-Margallo, of Foreign Affairs, with €948,504 but owing over €64,000. Under García-Margallo at the Ministry is Secretary of State for the EU , Íñigo Méndez de Vigo (€1.2m), who comes ahead of the Minister for Education, José Ignacio Wert, who is the only one not owning real estate but nevertheless declares a net worth of €851,522.

The Treasury Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, declared €735,015 and debts of a little over €11,000. He is ahead of the Minister for Justice, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, with €453,219 and debts of €48,446, but owns the least property (worth only €42,068), while the Minister for the Interior (i.e. 'Home Secretry'), Jorge Fernández Díaz, declares €442,085 and debts of €74,070. The Minister for Health, Ana Mato, values herself at €392,086 and owes €183, 264. The Government Vice-President owes more than she owns: €310,082 and €405,185, respectively.