The minister of the interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, yesterday asked the minister of the same branch, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to urgently authorize the official escort service - in charge of the Mossos d'Esquadra - for Carles Puigdemont in Belgium , requested again by the former president himself. Elena formalized the request to the Ministry of the Interior hours after the head of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, assured that the Spanish Government will process the request this time because "no one questions the safety of people, no matter how many ideological differences there may be ". However, in Interior they do not take authorization for granted. And for now, they will ask that the State Attorney's Office be involved.
It was the head of Puigdemont's office, Josep Lluís Alay, who late on Monday demanded that the Generalitat escort the former president to Belgium because "for several weeks" - during the negotiations between the PSOE and Together for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez – have detected that the risk of suffering an attack has increased.
A request for personal protection service would have two possible routes, according to police sources. If the escort were for Catalonia, in this case the authorization would be exclusive to the Generalitat and the Mossos d'Esquadra, which as integral police have the competence in the matter. For now, that's not the case. In the second scenario, escort in a third country, it would be Belgium that would have to authorize it, after Interior conveys the request.
And this procedure is the one that has never obtained the approval of the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
In September, the Barcelona Court sentenced the ex-minister of the Interior, Miquel Buch, to four and a half years in prison and twenty years of disqualification for having hired a Mossos sergeant as an adviser to his department in 2018 to continue escorting Puigdemont after of his escape.
However, yesterday the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, assured RAC1 that the Ministry of the Interior will process the former president's request. Statements that surprised the team led by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, since the request had not even reached the ministry. The Generalitat understood in Bolaños' words a change of attitude in Moncloa and expressed it as follows in the missive addressed to the Interior: "Following statements by Minister Bolaños (...) we understand that, this time yes , the Spanish Government will process the request for protection. This represents a significant change with respect to the position maintained in recent years". In this sense, Elena requested "urgently" the escorts in Belgium, and in Foreign Affairs, the procedures "for the transfer of the weapons of the agents who will have to provide the service".
The letter arrived at Interior a couple of hours after it was published on the networks. Ministerial sources explain that, for the time being, the request will neither be evaluated nor processed. The first will be to ask the State Attorney's Office to issue a report on the issue. There is the circumstance that the legal services already pronounced in 2018.
With this report in hand, Interior denied the request for two reasons: that Carles Puigdemont is not an authority of the State, and that there is a summons and search warrant for him in Spain. This, as argued, would oblige the accompanying police officer to arrest him rather than escort him.
