Jupol, the police union that for the last four years has led the protests against the Government of Pedro Sánchez —and in particular against the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska— has suffered a severe setback in the elections to the National Police Council , losing half of their representatives. Jupol loses its hegemony in favor of the historic Unified Police Union (SUP), which will double its presence in the negotiating body between agents and the Ministry.
Turnout in these Council elections has been particularly low. Although 72,162 national police officers were called to the polls yesterday, only 51.41% of them participated in the electoral process. A much lower percentage than in the 2019 elections when more than 72% deposited their vote.
After the scrutiny, finished at the stroke of midnight, the 14 seats in the Police Council remain as follows: four advisers for the SUP (two representatives from the basic scale, one from the sub-inspectorate and another from the executive), four representatives from Jupol and ASP (all at the basic level), two advisers from the SPP Professional Police Union (one from the executive and one from the higher level), two from the Spanish Police Confederation CEP (basic scale), a representative from the UFP (basic scale) and a representative for the Equalization Ya EYA union (also basic scale).
The first reaction on the part of Jupol has been to blame the head of the Interior for “playing dirty” to neutralize the union that was created with the aim of fighting for salary equality between national and regional police forces. Its general secretary, Aarón Rivero, has assured that his union “will maintain its line of action to continue fighting for the rights of police officers.”
For its part, the SUP —which acknowledges that participation “has not been as expected—has celebrated recovering “its place” in the Police Council. 2With this electoral success, the SUP recovers its capacity for action and work to carry out its electoral program”. Along these lines is the improvement of the material resources with the provision of taser pistols for all the units that are most urgent, the “dignified” retirement of the national police officers, the recognition as a risky profession for the National Police, the reclassification to the Group B for the Basic Scale and the revision and update of the diets of the police officers that have been stagnant for two decades.
