Salvador Illa reshuffles Catalan government, replacing Mònica Martínez Bravo with Raúl Moreno after DGAIA scandals

Surprise change at mid-term

President Salvador Illa announced on 20 July the replacement of Mònica Martínez Bravo as consellera de Drets Socials i Inclusió by Raúl Moreno, until now the department's secretary general. The move, confirmed in a surprise institutional declaration from the Palau de la Generalitat, marks the first change in Illa's cabinet since he took office in August 2024 and comes exactly at the midpoint of the legislature. Illa thanked Martínez Bravo for her two years of service, and she issued a farewell message stating that being consellera had been the greatest honor of her life and that she would continue contributing from academia.

Being consellera has been the greatest honor of my life. The vocation of public service and having seen how people's lives can be improved are a force that will always accompany me.

DGAIA scandals and the department's legacy

Martínez Bravo's tenure was overshadowed by repeated crises at the DGAIA, the former child and adolescent care agency. In May 2025, a 12-year-old girl under state guardianship was raped and prostituted by a 45-year-old man, triggering an urgent overhaul. Additional irregularities surfaced when the Sindicatura de Comptes detected improper payments of social benefits to former wards and to deceased dependants. The consellera responded by dismantling the DGAIA, renaming it DGPPIA, and centralizing management of social payments in a new directorate. Her final major decision, in May 2026, was to halt the outsourcing of benefit administration. The restructuring, however, failed to quell political criticism.

Opposition demands deep remodeling

Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana immediately declared the change insufficient. Junts spokesperson Salvador Vergés demanded a "deep remodeling" of the entire government, noting that three other conselleres (Sílvia Paneque (Territori), Núria Parlon (Interior), and Esther Niubó (Educació)) have been symbolically reprobated by the parliament. Vergés provided data on Martínez Bravo's low institutional presence: in the last 12 months, she held official events on only 8 of 47 working Fridays, and even fewer on weekends.

Being a conseller is not comparable to being a senior executive; it is a matter of service to the country that requires being permanently in contact with people, organizations, and companies.

Junts also argued that Moreno, as secretary general, was co-responsible for the department's 'poor management.' ERC secretary general Elisenda Alamany said Martínez Bravo's departure 'demonstrates that things are not working' and pointed to a fragile cabinet: one consellera living in Madrid (Martínez Bravo), another (Salut's Olga Pané) on sick leave for over three months, and Paneque openly linked to a future mayoral candidacy in Girona. Alamany said 'a government in these conditions is quite precarious for the challenges' Catalonia faces.

PSC defends continuity and the amnesty ruling

PSC vice-first secretary Lluïsa Moret rejected any suggestion of a cabinet crisis, framing the change as a natural "line of continuity" driven by Martínez Bravo's personal decision. Moret praised Raúl Moreno's social policy experience and said he would be a "dignified" representative of the government. Separately, she welcomed the EU Court of Justice ruling backing Spain's amnesty law, stating it reinforces the constitutionality of the measure and removes "any democratic obstacle" to its application. Moret criticized PP and Vox for reacting with hostility, accusing them of being "prepared to confront, to generate hatred and confrontation between territories and between people." Regarding speculation about Paneque's possible candidacy for mayor of Girona, Moret said the party will decide by February 2027 at the latest.