The discomfort in the Mossos d’Esquadra over the call at the last minute of the legislature of the competition to fill the position of the second major in the police is already in court. The USPAC union, one of the majority unions in the organization, has assured that appointing a new major at this time is “arbitrary.” In fact, it is not the only union that is considering taking the issue to court. The SAP-Fepol union has requested a report from its legal services to assess whether, as it seems, they are appealing the call for the position, because “it denotes a clear politicization of the body.”
USPAC considers that the call for the position published this Tuesday is “tailor-made after a restructuring of the police force that aims to dominate the operation from political positions.” And they add that with this system “the political leadership can be aware of all investigations with the approval of the current chief commissioner.” Although no one from the Ministry of the Interior has stated it publicly, the square is designed so that the current chief commissioner of the Mossos, Eduard Sallent, can present himself and be elected.
Since his appointment, the current head of the Mossos has been accused of attempts at political interference in the work of the Mossos d’Esquadra. Accusations that both he and the department’s political team have denied. At the time and in writing in reports presented in court, the person responsible for the general police criminal investigation station, Mayor Toni Rodríguez, already pointed out Sallent as the person who tried to interfere in the investigation against the counselor. Miquel Buch, finally sentenced to four and a half years in prison for signing Carles Puigdemont’s bodyguard as an advisor. Rodríguez maintains a lawsuit against his dismissal in court, after being removed from the investigation and exiled to the Rubí police station, where he is the person most responsible.
SAP-Fepol, for its part, believes that the offer of this position has been tailor-made for Sallent. USPAC defends that the call is “further proof that the so-called feminization of the body is just a gesture in front of the gallery, which seriously harms the basic and intermediate levels, but which shields the political appointment of commissioners and majors.” Although at first, some of the eight police stations in the Mossos shared with their trusted circles the possibility of appearing for the call, at this time, that option seems unthinkable.
Major is a freely designated rank, which after an interview, ends with a course, a training trip abroad and formal appointment. It is a range until retirement, with a salary that ranges between 93 and 98,000 euros gross per year. Some unofficial sources assure that the General Directorate of the Police has even designed the Sallent training course and decided on the destination of the trip: Belgium.
The previous call for the mayor’s position was in 2017, and it has been occupied since then by Josep Lluís Trapero, removed by the ERC government and currently at the head of a services analysis commissioner. At the time, the announcement of the call for major was also involved in controversy and some commanders of the Mossos themselves tried to stop it internally. The SPC union sued it judicially, and lost, because the judge considered that they were not entitled to challenge a contest that did not directly affect them. Also then, as now, it was open to all commissioners, but only Trapero showed up. Until that moment, the rank of major had been out of use since 2007, when Joan Unió retired.
The current head of the force was promoted to commissioner on the same day and to head of the force in 2019, with Miquel Buch as head of the Department of the Interior for Junts. Sallent replaced Commissioner Miquel Esquius who, despite his insurmountable discretion, shared with his trusted circles that he had been betrayed and deceived. A year later, Miquel Sàmper, then also for Junts, arrived and reinstated Trapero after the acquittal of the accusations for which he was tried at the National Court, for the role of the Mossos on October 1.
The calm did not last long. Against all odds, ERC accepted the challenge of assuming, from the Government, the command of the Interior. Trapero was dismissed and Sallent was once again recovered, this time by the Republicans, to be the second to Commissioner Josep Maria Estela.
Interior justified the movement with the desire to have a younger, “choral” police leadership, and clearly betting on feminization. Just a few months later, Estela accused Sallent of disloyalty and demanded her dismissal. Finally, the person dismissed was Estela, who was appointed head of the Ponent police region, while Sallent regained the leadership.
