Aragonès defends the termination of Estela in front of the Mossos and the "political orientation" of Interior

Pere Aragonès defended this Wednesday in Parliament the decision of the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, to dismiss the chief commissioner of the Mossos, Josep Maria Estela.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
19 October 2022 Wednesday 07:32
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Aragonès defends the termination of Estela in front of the Mossos and the "political orientation" of Interior

Pere Aragonès defended this Wednesday in Parliament the decision of the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, to dismiss the chief commissioner of the Mossos, Josep Maria Estela. A dismissal that the president of the Government protected by "the discrepancy on the orientation and on certain decisions", without going into more details, after ratifying his confidence in the minister.

Aragonès thus responded to a question from the leader of the opposition, Salvador Illa, during the control session for the president in the Catalan Chamber. Illa made his way of acting with his body ugly, reminding him of the news that speaks of political interference in the Mossos and questioning whether Elena had resigned or was planning to dismiss him. But the president closed ranks with the Minister and underpinned the "political orientation" that the Government has adopted in the field of security.

Although "it is evident that this is a situation that no one wants", admitted Aragonès, referring to the crisis generated by the dismissal of the fifth chief commissioner of the Mossos in five years, he defended that "it is not political interference to appoint the commissioners" of the body, and recalled that the last socialist executive appointed six commissioners the last day before leaving the Government.

Instead, Illa urged the president to "take the reins" in the face of the controversy within the Catalan police as it corresponds to him as "supreme command of the Mossos body", after reproaching that Elena has not offered until today "no explanation information" about the crisis and that the Government has chosen the CUP as a security partner.

The clash between the president and the leader of the PSC, marked the future of the plenary session of the Parliament this Wednesday, with the opposition charging against the management of the Minister of the Interior and, by extension, of the president, whom they accuse of politically interfering in the body. The controversy was addressed in two acts, first in the appearance of the president to account for the remodeling of the Government after the departure of Junts, and then during the control session with the Executive and the president.

The socialists took the lead in criticizing the management of the Interior in the Mossos and, in fact, they seriously consider disapproving Minister Elena, a decision that, if carried out, would mark a turning point in the opposition task that has been doing the PSC to date.

The possibility of presenting an initiative in the Parliament of these characteristics was already slipped by the socialist leader, Salvador Illa, in an interview on TV3 this Tuesday, assuring that he did not rule it out as a consequence of the "seriousness" of the matter, but that he would wait until listen to the president's explanations. However, socialist sources cool this possibility by warning that the hard opposition "is not our style" and that Ciudadanos already did it in its day and it only served to "throw away the 1.5 million votes that in its day harvested".

If there is no last-minute change, the belligerence shown by Illa this Wednesday in Parliament with the Mossos issue will not go beyond here. Although "today it has shown its teeth", the PSC is very aware of the implications for the municipalities of a policy of confrontation with the current police and interior leadership, as well as the implications of a decision of this caliber for the interests of the central government .

In any case, for the PSC, the outbreak of this crisis marks very negatively the debut of the new solo government of ERC after the departure of Junts from the Executive. In fact, they have maintained contacts with the postconvergents to explore Elena's disapproval which, although it does not have legal implications or lead to the minister's resignation, would leave the minister politically affected.

In the day of the plenary session of the Parliament this Thursday, a socialist motion will be debated and voted on that denounces the "existence of repeated attempts to politicize the body, turning it into a bargaining chip to achieve agreements of a partisan nature", but socialist sources warn that there are time to present or transact an amendment in which that disapproval is raised.

Before the control session, Illa took advantage of Aragonès' intervention to explain her remodeling of the Government to demand that "political interference" in the police stop. "Enough. Enough of political interference in the Mossos body. What they have to do and do not do is give support to the 18,000 public servants that make up the body, and what they do not have to do and do is take their hands off the Mossos' body," demanded Illa.

The socialist leader was scandalized by the "chaotic direction of the Mossos d'Esquadra body": "Since when does the minister (of the Interior) decide who is promoted as commissioner?", he questioned in reference to the reasons for the dismissal of Estela , his disagreement with the election of the commissioners of the body, on which the Interior imposes a specific quota of women. Illa, who proposed "a contest of merits and abilities" for said election, demanded "a little modesty" from the head of the Government.

The president replied by assuring him that in 2001 a decree was approved that establishes that the one who appoints the commissioners is the Minister of the Interior. “There has been a prior council of advisers, made up of police officers, with a pre-selection of candidates,” he explained, while defending that the “operational autonomy” of the body has been respected in any case.

Elena's brief explanations in response to a question from En Comú Podem did not convince the opposition either. The Minister defended the dismissal of Commissioner Estela alleging "differences" that he did not specify, but that are related to the need to "guarantee that a model that I have assumed as political leader is carried out," he said. In the first explanations since the case broke out last Monday, the minister defended the decision due to the "discretion" that the position confers on him.