The Moncloa Chief of Staff, officially called Director of the Prime Minister's Cabinet, is the most senior political appointee in the Office of the Prime Minister of Spain. The chief of staff, with the rank of secretary of state, is appointed by the Prime Minister as its senior aide. This position has no executive authority although it is the principal advisor to the prime minister and it coordinates the work action of the different government departments, as well as lead the Cabinet Office.
There is not a legal requirement for this role to exist but, since Adolfo Suárez in 1976, each prime minister has appointed a person of their trust to this role. The chief of staff chairs the Steering Committee of the Prime Minister's Office (), a body established in 2020 to "coordinate the advisory [bodies] and support the Prime Minister's Office activities" and it is integrated by all the high-ranking officials of the Office.
Also, the chief of staff is a member of the General Commission of Secretaries of State and Undersecretaries and of the National Security CouncilâÂÂof which he is secretary.
In the case of Spain, the chief of staff is a political position held by people close to the prime minister, but with less public relevance than their counterparts in the United States [<nowiki/>White House Chief of Staff] or Germany [<nowiki/>Head of the Federal Chancellery], among others, since, in Spain, the chief of staff usually has an almost "invisible" role, not being part of the Council of Ministers, with few appearances in the press and, on many occasions, without accompanying the head of government at public eventsâÂÂwith the exception of some such as Jorge MoragasâÂÂ.
Although initially the role of this position was not strictly regulated, it now has very well-defined functions outlined in the royal decrees that the prime minister approves at the beginning of each term to organize their working environment, that is, the Office of the Prime Minister. This regulatory evolution has been made possible by the evolution of the Prime Minister's Office itself, but it has always shared one common element: the chief of staff's power comes from what the prime minister chooses to grant them.
Thus, the position has gone from having a minor regulation and the administrative rank of director-general during the premierships of Adolfo Suárez and Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, to being a key player in matters as important as national security or crisis management since the premiership of José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero, reaching its highest level of authority during the premiership of Pedro Sánchez, who created a Steering Committee that place under the control of the chief of staff, among other bodies, both the Secretariat of State for Press and the General Secretariat of the Prime Minister's OfficeâÂÂwhich had been under the chief of staff since 2017 and from which the chief of staff had been stealing responsibilities for some timeâÂÂ. For this, the chief of staff currently constitutes the center of power of the Prime Minister's Office.
The chief of staff heads the Cabinet Office (or Prime Minister's Cabinet). As of 2026, the Cabinet Office is composed by:
Since the position was established, 13 people have served as such. Of these, only Carmen DÃÂez de Rivera, its first holder, has been a woman. José Enrique Serrano MartÃÂnez is the only one to have held the position for two different terms, making him one of the longest-serving holdersâÂÂeight and a half yearsâÂÂthough not surpassing Roberto Dorado Zamorano, who held the position for . José Luis Ayllón served the shortest term as head of the President's Cabinet, with in office.