Thousands of police and civil guards join the PP and Vox offensive against Marlaska with a demonstration

Fernando Grande-Marlaska, again in the eye of the hurricane. Thousands of national police and civil guards marched this Saturday through some of the main streets in the center of Madrid to demand the resignation of the Minister of the Interior in a protest that included the participation of PP and Vox deputies. The demonstration – which has brought together 12,000 people according to the Delegation of the Government of Madrid and between 25,000 and 40,000 according to the organizers – takes place weeks after the Congress of Deputies and the Senate approved motions presented by the Popular Party and supported by the formation of Santiago Abascal in which the dismissal of the minister was requested, considering him responsible for the death of two civil guards in Barbate (Cádiz) on February 9. This Saturday, the slogan most chanted by the protesters was in fact “Marlaska, resignation”, accompanied precisely by numerous allusions to the death of the two agents run over by a drug boat. At the time when the protest began, the minister inaugurated the exhibition in another part of the capital 200 years of history of the Spanish Police.

This Saturday’s protest is a continuation of the concentrations that, on February 16, the same platform of police associations called for delegations from all over Spain. Now, as then, the initial demands revolved around economic issues, such as the improvement of agents’ salaries, a measure that the Government rejects considering that an agreement signed with the unions in 2018 has since translated into an increase of their remuneration of more than 35% for them. Along with this claim, the events in Barbate have also had a prominent role and, with it, the demand that the police profession be considered “risk”, a measure that would result in improvements in their retirement conditions.

Thousands of people during the demonstration by Civil Guards and Police, this Saturday in the center of Madrid. A. Pérez Meca (Europa Press)

Last February, the Congressional Interior Commission approved a Non-Law Proposition (PNL, a parliamentary initiative with which the Chamber is intended to express its position on a specific issue, but which is not binding on the Government) of the PP in this sense. From the Interior they have insisted in recent weeks that this measure is already being studied. This time criticism of political issues has remained in the background, such as the amnesty law, about which only some slogans have been heard sporadically against the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont to demand his entry into prison.

Both a month ago and this Saturday, the protests have been supported by PP and Vox, parties that have always considered the security forces and their families an important source of votes. However, in February, the general secretary of the Popular Party, Cuca Gamarra, and other prominent leaders of her party, such as Borja Sémper and Esteban González Pons, attended the Madrid protest. On this occasion, the attendees were a group of deputies led by the spokesperson for the Congressional Interior Commission, Ana Belén Vázquez, who has done a good part of the route carrying the banner of the header with the motto “Same job, same retirement.” .

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Vox, both then and this Saturday, has been represented by the deputy and member of the party’s National Executive Committee, Javier Ortega Smith. His presence has caused discomfort among some protesters, who do not forget the incident that he caused in one of the concentrations against the amnesty law on Ferraz Street. Then, the leader of the ultra party and spokesperson for the Madrid City Council, escorted by several television cameras, addressed the head of the police operation to warn him that he was there so that the police “does not exceed their duties.” Those words provoked a storm of criticism from the police unions, who considered that he was putting pressure on the officers.

Dozens of people during the demonstration, this Saturday in the center of Madrid.
Borja Sanchez-Trillo (EFE)

The 12,000 attendees this Saturday represent a reactivation of the police protests against the Government, although it is still far from the success of the call that was held on November 21, 2021, which managed to bring together 20,000 people (the organizers raised this number at 150,000) in the center of Madrid. On that occasion the reason for the protest was not work-related, but political: to show the agents’ rejection of the reform of the citizen security law (known as gag law) that the government parties were then negotiating with their parliamentary partners and which was finally frustrated. The then leaders of the PP and Ciudadanos, Pablo Casado and Inés Arrimadas, respectively, and the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, attended that protest.

Since then, police demonstrations have continued to be held, although with significantly lower attendance and with less prominent political representation and even none at all on some occasions. In November 2022, a mobilization in Madrid to improve the working conditions of police and civil guards, which ended with criticism of the reform of the crime of sedition, brought together only 6,000 people according to the Government delegation and 20,000 according to the organizers. In March 2023, and again against the reform of the gag law, the unions gathered 4,000 (“more than 30,000,” according to police organizations). Two months later, in May of last year, attendance was somewhat better – 7,500 according to the Government Delegation and 80,000 according to the organizers – but still far from the figures of November 2021. This Saturday’s protest has represented a new uptick. which reaffirms the open confrontation between the representatives of the agents and Minister Grande-Marlaska.