The general director of the Catalan police, Pere Ferrer, announced this Wednesday the call for the position of mayor of the Mossos d’Esquadra in the coming months. The announcement has taken by surprise those attending the periodic meeting that the top police officials hold at the Egara police complex, in Sabadell, as sources familiar with the meeting have confirmed to La Vanguardia.
Ferrer detailed to the attendees the department’s plans for this year, with a budget increase, and concluded his speech with the announcement of the call for the second senior position contemplated in the organization chart of the Mossos d’Esquadra. Currently, the Catalan police have a major who is Josep Lluís Trapero, who does not serve as head of the force, after being dismissed by Minister Joan Ignasi Elena shortly after joining the Interior Department.
The commissioners who wish to do so may apply to the call for the mayor’s office, although the competition is especially designed to protect the current chief commissioner of the Mossos, Eduard Sallent, in the leadership, a commitment made by Elena and her team practically since their arrival at the Department of the Interior. The department’s intention is to convene this legislature, before the regional elections are called.
Trapero was named major in 2017, at that time he was the only candidate in the internal selection process for the position. The figure of the major was created in the Generalitat police law in 1994, but only Joan Unió assumed the position – he did so for 13 years – until under the mandate of councilor Jordi Jané and with Albert Batlle as director of the police They decided to recover it, incorporating into the organization chart the possibility of there being two majors.
