The dismissal of the chief commissioner of the Mossos, Josep Maria Estela, is the first major setback of the new ERC government alone, which attributes the dismissal to "discrepancies" with the Minister of the Interior.
The spokeswoman for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja, admitted at the press conference held after the usual meeting of the Government on Tuesday, that the situation created with this dismissal "is not desirable" and suggested that it is necessary to self-criticize what happened.
The reproaches of the opposition are unanimous, including those of the Catalan government partner until a week ago, Junts per Catalunya. Also the CUP, the third ally in the investiture of Aragonès, has questioned the changes.
The Minister Elena rushed yesterday to request an appearance before the Parliament to placate the opposition and explain his decisions in recent days that have expelled Estela from the leadership of the body to place Eduard Sallent, who already held this position for two years.
In theory, Sallent will provisionally occupy the position until Christmas is replaced by a new police chief. In theory. Because yesterday the director general of the Mossos, Pere Ferrer, who at Catalunya Ràdio rejected any "political interference", also denied that Sallent's position is interim. Ferrer assured that the dismissal had occurred due to the lack of understanding with the strategic objective of the Government of feminizing the police force.
The professional unions of the Mossos are also critical of the Minister's decision. Some consider that it is proof that the Government of Aragonès tries to politically control the regional police. With a socially complex winter due to the consequences of the crisis, having the security forces angry could be a problem for the Executive.
The first opposition party, the PSC, matures the presentation of a disapproval motion to Elena, although it is a politically sensitive decision.
In any case, the spokesman for the PSC in the Interior commission, Ramon Espadaler, was not convinced by the reasons alleged by the Interior – in fact, Minister Elena has not spoken publicly about it – to explain the sudden dismissal of the chief commissioner until Monday . "That excuse that they have invented about the feminization of the body is a gross lie." For Espadaler, the Interior policy already started badly at the beginning of the legislature when the ERC signed the investiture pact with the CUP with the agreement to review the police model.
This morning President Aragonès will appear in Parliament and then he will intervene in the control session. Tomorrow a PSC motion will be voted on – presented before the crisis broke out – but it will be used to put the Executive in a bind.
