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“The 2023 budgets are the ones that make the most clear commitment to public safety in the history of the Generalitat”. This was assured by the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, during the presentation to the Interior Commission of the Parliament of Catalonia of the budget project of the Department of the Interior.
In figures, the Interior budgets for 2023 included in the accounts of the Generalitat approved this March by the Catalan Chamber, amount to €1,814 million, which represents an increase of 13.4% compared to last year past The accounts grow by 215 million euros in relation to the 2022 budget, with an expenditure figure that climbs to 368 million, tripling the expenditure of just seven years ago.
Elena wanted to emphasize that it continues “on a line of growth that should allow us to keep up to date with the country’s security and emergencies and continue to deepen all the transformations that are being promoted: closer proximity to the territory, more feminization and more resources and means for the operational bodies”.
The bet for more troops for the public security forces of the Generalitat – Police, Firefighters, Civil Protection and Rural Agents – will be finalized this year with calls to incorporate 2,570 new troops, including police (1,700), firefighters (470), rural agents (100) and volunteer firefighters (300).
This offer is completed with the selection and training of the promotions that were called last year (850 police officers, 250 official firefighters, 160 rural agents and 515 volunteer firefighters). Therefore, after the training process, almost 1,800 new professionals and volunteers will join. Thus, between the new calls and selection and training, there will be around 4,300 new members of the country’s security and emergency forces.
As for the Mossos d’Esquadra body, the calls to recruit new officers have also served to advance the goal of feminizing the body. In the call closed last February, 36% of the applications were from women, the highest percentage in the history of the body.
In addition, 2023 was also the year in which the Government approved a decree-law restructuring the Department of the Interior. One of the changes foreseen in the new structure is the creation of the Security and Transversal Policies Cabinet, with the aim of promoting an approach to security and emergencies from a social and feminist perspective. Other novelties have been the change of uniform for the officers and the celebration of the first act of recognition of the retirement of Mossos d’Esquadra officers.
Firefighters have also been a priority of the Department of the Interior when it comes to achieving the objective of providing them with more resources and cash, as well as making progress in the incorporation of women.
A total of 642 women registered for the call for 240 places to join the Generalitat Fire Service in the 1st firefighter category on the technical scale, the registration period for which ended on February. It is the highest number of female applicants ever recorded. With respect to the 2021 call, there was a 52.1% increase in applicants (from 422 to 642 women) and the figures practically tripled in relation to 2019, where the total number of women registered was 231 .
This call for access to the Generalitat Fire Brigade was accompanied by an advertising campaign with the aim of encouraging the participation of women, which carried the slogan “We need more fire fighters like you”.
On the other hand, last February the Government approved a 13% increase in the staff of the General Directorate of Civil Protection, the largest in a decade. This measure responds to the need to strengthen the prevention and management of emergencies in an environment marked by the climate emergency.
Finally, this year 2023 there is a call for 100 new agent positions in the category of the basic scale (group C, subgroup C1) of the Corps of Rural Agents (CAR) of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Since last year, calls for opposition from the Corps of Rural Agents foresee a 40% reservation for women.
Women are currently only 14% of rural agents and the 40% reserve responds to the fact that the Department of the Interior is committed to the implementation of positive action measures in the operative bodies endorsed by the effective equality laws of women and men in order to achieve the parity required by said regulations.
