Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the third longest-serving Interior Minister in office —only surpassed by José Barrionuevo and José Luis Corcuera—, has indicated to the new director of the Civil Guard that he is taking office “at the best moment” of the Armed Institute thanks to the “management path” followed by the department that he has directed since the summer of 2018. An institution that, in the words of the head of the Interior, “was subjected for too long to the perverse arithmetic of the politics of bad politicians.”
In the middle of the afternoon, with the thermometer exceeding 35 degrees and in the paved patio of the General Directorate of the Civil Guard, the inauguration of Leonardo Marcos as general director of the Armed Institute was celebrated. It was planned, as it appeared in the official agenda and in the call to the media, that the inauguration would be chaired by the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles. Eternal rivals in the Council of Ministers. However, the minister has not appeared on the scene until the end of the act.
It is not the first time that the Minister of Defense is absent from an act. She already did it when in January 2020 when Marlaska imposed his candidate to lead the body, María Gámez. This contempt was repeated just two months ago when the last director of the Civil Guard, Mercedes González, took office. There Robles did not dedicate a single word in her speech to Gámez, who resigned after her husband was charged with an alleged case of corruption. González – who has only remained in the position for two months after the PSOE included her in its lists for the general elections – was imposed from Moncloa, from where the exit door to Gámez was also indicated after the incident came to light. scandal of her husband.
Now Marlaska, to whom the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, continues to give his utmost confidence, has made up for the latest imposition. The head of the Interior wanted to place a person from the hardest core of him within the Ministry at the head of the institution, Leonardo Marcos, who for the last three years has been director of Civil Protection. The Defense Minister, who has argued that she was late at the start of the act, has lost this pulse by failing to impose a person she trusts to head the Civil Guard.
Robles has not arrived in time to deliver his speech, despite the fact that it was the Defense Department who set 6:00 p.m. this Wednesday for the celebration of the act after weeks of longing for the Interior, from where they offered up to six different times this week to take it just.
Who has delivered a speech has been the Minister of the Interior. Brief, but full of messages for the political opposition that has turned his mandate into an ordeal at times and for the Civil Guard associations. “I am going to move away from fashions to pronounce an unattractive word, which does not generate revenue: Management”, he has warned. “Leonardo arrived at the best moment of the Civil Guard. Let’s say it with our heads held high, and talk about Equality, efficiency, better means, more agents, better trained and better salaries ”, Marlaska has listed.
The Minister of the Interior has assured that he and his team have not paid tolls in the Civil Guard, which for “too long” was subjected “to the perverse arithmetic of the politics of bad politicians.”
—Unfortunately, too many times in the history of our country, proclamations have been confused with slogans and testosterone with courage…
Marcos, a minute before, has indicated as a “challenge” that is marked during his term – which may be truncated if after 23J the political sign that the Government supports changes – the fight against gender violence. A “scourge”, he has said, “that threatens the essential values ??that sustain our coexistence: life, physical integrity and freedom.” He has also named cybercrime and the demographic challenge as challenges.
