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Spain's Socialist Party reveals members of new Cabinet

05 of June 2018

Spain's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez steps out to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko before their meeting at the Moncloa palace in Madrid, Monday, June 4, 2018. Opposition Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez won the vote last week to replace Mariano Rajoy as Prime Minister, in the first ouster of a serving Spanish leader by parliament in four decades of democracy. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco),Spain's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez steps out to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko before their meeting at the Moncloa palace in Madrid, Monday, June 4, 2018. Opposition Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez won the vote last week to replace Mariano Rajoy as Prime Minister, in the first ouster of a serving Spanish leader by parliament in four decades of democracy. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

MADRID (AP) — A Socialist party official in Spain says European Parliament ex-president Josep Borrell will become foreign minister in the new government.

Jose Luis Abalos, the party’s organizational secretary, on Tuesday confirmed a handful of names in Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Cabinet, which replaces the conservative government that fell last week after a corruption scandal.

The choice of Borrell, a 71-year-old Catalan, was criticized by separatists in Catalonia and praised by pro-Spain lawmakers in the politically divided region. Borrell has been outspoken against Catalan independence.

Abalos told broadcaster TVE that party official Carmen Calvo would serve as deputy premier and head of the resurrected Equality Ministry, in a nod to Spain’s feminist movement. He said Maria Jesus Montero would become finance minister.

Abalos would serve as development minister, according to his office.