The new Education Councilor assumes the competencies of the vacant Vice-Councilorship

The Counselor of Education and Employment, Miguel Ángel Fernández Torroba, assumes as of this week the exercise of the competencies and functions of the Vice-Counselorship of Education, Universities and Vocational Training, vacant following his own promotion to the head of the department. The decision is formalized in Resolution 91/2026, of November 3, published in the Official Gazette of La Rioja (BOR) no. 213, of November 4, 2026, in the Authorities and Personnel section (p. 18715, official reference BOR-A-20261104-II–1238).

The origin of the situation lies in the Presidential Decree 4/2026, of November 2, by which Miguel Ángel Fernández Torroba was appointed Counselor of Education and Employment, published in the BOR no. 212, of November 3, 2026 (p. 18611, reference BOR-A-20261103-II–1234) and signed by President Gonzalo Capellán de Miguel. The decree entered into force on the day of its publication and, in application of article 36.2 of Law 8/2003, of October 28, on the Government and Incompatibilities of its members, the appointment entailed the dismissal of the interested party as Vice-Counselor of Education, Universities and Vocational Training.

A vacancy requiring organizational measures

Resolution 91/2026 justifies the intervention by stating that, as the Vice-Counselorship has become vacant, “it is necessary to adopt the appropriate organizational measures to guarantee the proper processing and resolution of the administrative procedures” within its area of competence, preventing the absence of a holder from causing “delays or dysfunctions” in the management of those matters.

The text recalls that Decree 53/2023, of July 14, which establishes the organic structure of the Department, attributes in its article 10 to the holder of the Vice-Counselorship a set of functions that now fall to the counselor:

• Direction, coordination, promotion, supervision, and management in the matters of its area of competence.
• Exercise of those tasks under the superior authority of the head of the Department.
• Processing and resolution of the administrative procedures corresponding to the Vice-Counselorship.

The legal backing of the provisional substitution

The resolution is based on article 26 of Law 4/2005, of June 1, on the Operation and Legal Regime of the Administration of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja, which allows for the provisional substitution of the holders of administrative bodies in cases of vacancy, absence, or illness. The regulation establishes that such substitution corresponds to whoever is designated by the competent body and that, if no substitute is appointed, the competence is exercised by whoever is designated by the immediate administrative body upon which the vacant body depends.

With that protection, the counselor, “in exercise of the powers conferred upon him,” stipulates in the first point that, while the Vice-Counselorship remains vacant, the exercise of its competencies and functions shall be assumed by the head of the Department of Education and Employment. The second point orders the publication of the resolution in the Official Gazette of La Rioja, a procedure fulfilled by its insertion in issue number 213.

Affects educational and university processing

The measure has immediate effects on the ordinary activity of the department, as the Vice-Counselorship is the body upon which educational planning, university policy, and non-university vocational training depend. The resolution does not create any new body nor alter the structure established by Decree 53/2023: it is limited to temporarily concentrating in the counselor the powers of direction, promotion, and resolution that corresponded to the dismissed vice-counselor, until a new appointment is made or the position is filled by other means.

The scope is, therefore, transitory and functional: ongoing files, authorizations, resolutions of selective procedures, and relations with the University of La Rioja and other institutions in the educational field continue their course, but with the signature and management responsibility in the hands of the head of the Department. Furthermore, the publication serves the function of providing publicity and legal certainty as to who actually exercises the competence during the vacancy period, a relevant point for third parties, centers, and administrations processing matters with this department.

The move occurs just one day after the BOR published the appointment decree of the new counselor, highlighting the will to quickly close the organizational gap opened by his departure from the Vice-Counselorship. For the Riojan educational community, the practical fact is that there is no interim or external substitution: since November 3, all competencies of the Vice-Counselorship are exercised from the office of the counselor of Education and Employment, with the administrative structure already provided for by Decree 53/2023.

Source: Official Gazette of La Rioja, no. 213, November 4, 2026, Authorities and Personnel, p. 18715 (official reference: BOR-A-20261104-II–1238).