Interior's historic commitment to reinforce Catalan public security

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“The 2023 budgets are the ones that most clearly support public safety in the entire history of the Generalitat.” This was stated by the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, during his presentation before the Interior Commission of the Parliament of Catalonia of the draft budget for his Department.

In figures, the budgets for 2023 included in the Generalitat’s accounts approved this March by the Catalan chamber, amount to €1,814 million, which represents an increase of 13.4% compared to last year. The accounts grow by 215 million euros in relation to the 2022 budget, with a spending figure that reaches 368 million, tripling the spending of just seven years ago.

Elena wanted to emphasize that it continues “in a line of growth that should allow us to continue updating the country’s security and emergencies and continue deepening all the transformations that are being promoted: greater proximity to the territory, more feminization and more resources and means for the operational bodies”.

The commitment to more troops for the public security forces of the Generalitat – Mossos, Firefighters, Civil Protection and Rural Agents – will materialize this year with the calls to incorporate 2,570 new troops, including mossos (1,700), firefighters (470), agents rural (100) and volunteer firefighters (300).

This offer is completed with the selection and training of the promotions that were called last year (850 mossos d’esquadra, 250 official firefighters, 160 rural agents and 515 volunteer firefighters). Therefore, after the training process, almost 1,800 new professionals and volunteers will be incorporated. Thus, between the new calls and the selection and training, there will be around 4,300 new troops in the country’s security and emergency forces.

As for the Mossos d’Esquadra corps, the calls to incorporate new agents have also served to advance towards the goal of feminization. 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 has also been the year in which the Government has approved a decree-law for the restructuring of the Department of the Interior. One of the modifications foreseen in the new structure is the creation of the Transversal Security and Political 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 of the agents and the celebration of the first act of recognition of the retirement of agents of the Mossos d’Esquadra.

The Bomber team has also been a priority for the Department of the Interior when it comes to achieving the objective of providing it with more resources and troops, as well as advancing in the incorporation of women.

A total of 642 women registered in the call for 240 places to access the Generalitat Fire Brigade in the category of 1st technical scale firefighter, the registration period for which ended in February. It is the highest number of female applicants ever recorded. Regarding 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 registered was 231.

This call for access to the body was accompanied by an advertising campaign created to encourage the participation of women, and had the slogan “We need more firefighters 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, the call for 100 new agent positions is planned in the basic scale category (group C, subgroup C1) of the Cos d’Agents Rurals (CAR) of the Generalitat. Since last year, the opposition calls of this body provide for a 40% reserve for female agents.

Women currently represent only 14% of the total number of rural agents. The decision to reserve 40% for them is a consequence of the decision of the Department of the Interior to implement positive action measures in the operational bodies guaranteed by the laws of effective equality of women and men to achieve the parity required by said regulations.