The fourth deputy prime minister, officially Fourth Vice President of the Government ( es, Vicepresidencia Cuarta del Gobierno de España), is a senior member of the

Government of Spain gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua , image = , caption = Logo of the Government of Spain , headerstyle = background-color: #efefef , label1 = Role , data1 = Executive power , label2 = Established , da ...

. The office of the Fourth Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. It is a constitutional office because it is foreseen in the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

when it provides for the possibility of existing more than one Vice Presidency. The office is currently abolished.

History and powers

It is an office of new creation established on 13 January 2020.

Teresa Ribera Teresa Ribera Rodríguez (born 19 May 1969) is a Spanish jurist, university professor, and politician who has served as the Minister for the Ecological Transition of Spain since 2018, after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez coming into power follow ...

, minister for the Ecological Transition was appointed as the first officeholder. The office of fourth deputy prime minister does not possess special constitutional powers beyond its responsibility as a member of the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

. The position is regulated in the Government Act of 1997 and it only specifies that the raison d'être of the office is to replace the

when the office is vacant, or the premier is absence or ill. The fourth deputy prime minister only assume this responsibility if the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

and

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

deputies could not do it. The office was abolished on 12 July 2021, when Prime Minister

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

promoted Teresa Ribera to third deputy prime minister.

List of officeholders

Office name: *Fourth Vice Presidency of the Government (2020–2021)

History and powers

List of officeholders

References

See also