The Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, defended this Wednesday his decision to dismiss the chief commissioner of the Mossos d'Esquadra, Josep Maria Estela, alleging "differences" that he did not want to specify but that are related to the need to "guarantee that carries out a model that as political leader I have assumed", 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.
In response to a parliamentary question from En Comú Podem during the control session with the Government, the minister promised to give explanations in parliament, predictably next Tuesday in the Parliament's Interior Committee, but advanced the lines of his defense in the face of the controversy generated. In addition to defending her power to terminate Estela due to differences in criteria regarding the process of feminizing the body, Elena warned that "there will be no political interference" (in the body) and "if someone says there is, they have to prove it." ", challenge. Similarly, the Minister guaranteed that he will not admit "police interference in the political dimension."
The crisis marked the future of the plenary session of the Parlament this Wednesday, with the opposition charging against the management of the Minister of the Interior, and by extension of President Pere Aragonès, 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 PSC took the lead in criticizing the management of the Interior. The head of the opposition, Salvador Illa, took advantage of his reply to the intervention of the head of the Government to demand that the "political interference" in the Catalan 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 with this way of acting.
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. A response devoid of self-criticism and far from the consideration of the Government spokesperson on Tuesday when she admitted that the situation of the Mossos "is not desirable."
On the part of the commons, its president, Jéssica Albiach, made a brief reference to the matter, reminding the president that he has ended up dismissing the chief commissioner that ERC, and not Junts, elected just 10 months ago, “without explanations and with strong suspicions and accusations of politicization ”. In her opinion, "they have begun their government alone just as they ended the coalition with Junts, between quarrels and crisis."
The Junts spokesman, Albert Batet, also made a brief reference to the crisis wrapped in irony. "God help me with the lack of noise from this Government, with the Interior crisis with the Mossos d'Esquadra...", he reproached the president.
From Ciudadanos, the spokesman Carlos Carrizosa warned Aragonès that "the ABC of democracy says that you will not make everyone's police yours", but "since the 'procés' we have had a long history of separatist snares in the Catalan police" .
