Incoming government puts off revealing plans until next week

There were no surprises and no indication of the government's plans to turn Spain's economy around. As expected, the newly sworn-in prime minister, Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party (PP), spent his first cabinet meeting on Friday appointing state secretaries and other officials.

Rajoy's administration plans to announce some of its measures aimed at creating jobs and kickstarting growth in a country with 22 percent unemployment on December 30.

In the meantime, Rajoy's deputy, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, said that the next cabinet meeting will approve a budget extension to include measures announced earlier by Rajoy, such as raising pensions. The ministers will also adopt a spending ceiling quota to submit to Congress in order to pass financial stability legislation and get the budget approved by March 31.

In the coming days, the government will also work on changes to the labor and financial sectors, said Santamaría, citing January 7 as the deadline for unions and employers to agree on new reforms.

She also said that Economy and the Treasury have been split into two ministries because the latter is in charge of reducing the deficit, a job that involves the regions, which is why it has been merged with the public administrations portfolio. The reason there is no specific deputy prime minister for economic affairs is because Rajoy wants to take the reins himself, said Santamaría.

The state secretary appointments did not provide any major surprises, although one of note is that of José María Lasalle for Culture. Lasalle is an atypical PP man known for his capacity to reach out across the aisle and is married to a Socialist politician.

Asked about the dearth of women in the new cabinet ? just four, including herself ? Santamaría replied: "Rajoy has selected his ministers thinking only about the best person for the job, not about men and women," in contrast with the Socialists, who strove for gender parity.