What was intended to be the second major police mobilization against the reform of the gag law has gone flat. If in November 2021 —when the modification of the Citizen Security law made its first progress in the Congress of Deputies— the majority unions managed to get tens of thousands of agents out on the streets against the reform; This Saturday the same conveners have not managed to gather more than several hundred police and civil guards in Madrid, after a large number of unions did not decide - this time - to support the mobilization.
Elections to the National Police Council are held in four months, but the electoral campaign has already begun. The unions are marking their positions to try to scratch positions in the seats of the Council, after Jupol swept the last elections. From this majority union they considered that it was time to take to the streets again to protest against a reform that, in their opinion, will make "the streets more insecure". And so they have defended it at the beginning of the march, in Madrid's Plaza de Neptuno, from where they have flown to Cibeles.
Along the way they have passed in front of the Congress of Deputies where shouts have been heard calling for the resignation of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska. In the Lower House, the reform they are protesting against continues to make no clear progress due to cross vetoes between government partners and their usual parliamentary allies. The last step was to approve the text in presentation so that it can be transferred to the Interior Commission; from there —if there is an agreement— the opinion must be submitted to the Plenary for final approval. But, given the times that the groups manage, it is not coming immediately.
This is precisely one of the reasons, as union sources acknowledge, one of the reasons for the puncture of the protest this Saturday. Since the reform remains paralyzed, there are no political debates and, therefore, the headlines in the press are scarce. It seems that the spirits were not heated enough to repeat the success of November 2021, when the demonstration reached the Ministry of the Interior. In that protest, thousands of agents were supported by the leading swords of the political parties: Pablo Casado, Santiago Abascal, Inés Arrimadas, Isabel Díaz-Ayuso. Today no leader of the main parties of the right and the extreme right have accompanied the police.
The conveners have downplayed the low participation. "We are the majority unions and we had to take to the streets", they have defended minutes before the protest began. Before the media they have verbalized their "deep discomfort" for a reform that, according to their statements, "is being carried out without taking into account the opinion of citizen security professionals." The general secretary of Jupol, Aarón Rivero, has reproached the head of the Interior for having only met once with the union that he leads in recent years. From Jusapol, the umbrella that brings together Jupol and Jucil, they insist that with the reform the police and civil guards "will find it difficult to carry out their work and those who will suffer the consequences will be the citizens." "It only benefits violent protesters and criminals," they added.
So far, the six groups that have been rowing for more than a year to reform the Citizen Security Law have agreed to modify fifty points of the articles of the law approved by the Popular Party when it enjoyed an absolute majority in 2015. However, there are four points where there are no areas of understanding, for the moment. It is about the prohibition of rubber balls, disrespect to agents, disobedience to authority and hot returns. Parties like ERC or EH Bildu ask to be more ambitious with the scope of the reform - "that it does not remain a mere make-up", point out parliamentary sources -, while the PSOE is in favor of approving the text without delay this legislature with the points agreed.
