The same day that the Official State Gazette (BOE) publishes the royal decree aid law by DANApolice unions and the People’s Party have disgraced the government for using this second package of measures aimed at those affected by the storm to “force” a legal change which allows the deputy operational director (DAO) of the police to remain in office national. . beyond retirement age, as ABC announced yesterday.
The current number 2 of the Police, José Angel Gonzálezwill be 65 next month. Faced with the emergency, the schedule “forced” the Executive to address its continuity, an open secret in the Corps, in the DANA aid decree, the broad outlines of which were detailed yesterday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez.
According to the text, the Government justifies the decision to keep the DAO in his post because, in this “national emergency situation”, it would be “highly dysfunctional to replace the one who, at the head of the Deputy Operational Directorate, is “He finds himself directing and coordinating the operational functions of National Police personnel on the ground”. He also argues that this puts an end to the comparative complaint which assumed that the DAO of the Civil Guard could continue to occupy this position after 65 years while the police officer was obliged to retire.
The government’s decision, although predictable, has aroused the discontent of police unions who consider this modification as a “grievance” within the Corps. From the Jupol union, they described as “unworthy” that the government is taking advantage of the decree to increase the retirement age of the DAO and assured that the movement “This generates a lot of discontent among police leaders.», since the rest of the members of the Board of Directors will have to retire at the maximum age of 65 years.
They also criticized the fact that this decision contrasts with the “total lack of will” to improve the working conditions of national police officers. In the opinion of the trade union organization, the modification shows that the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, “prefers to match the retirement of its trusted staffof the DAO, to the retirement conditions of the deputy operational director of the Civil Guard, as those of all agents of the national police of the regional and local police forces.
“The efforts and incessant research that this government has maintained to find the formulas to keep the deputy operational director in his post, beyond retirement age, are surprising, while they refuse us the formulas for to be able to reform the current legislation with a worthy retirement for all national police officers. Legislation that already exists and applies to the rest of the police forces in Spain, with the exception of the withdrawal of the National Police and the Civil Guard,” Jupol said.
A “premium retirement”
The Spanish Police Confederation (CEP) also denounced the “shameful”, “reprehensible” and “rejectable” initiative of the department led by Marlaska. The organization delved into the comparative grievance that the measure represents in relation to the rest of the Corps, because while the DAO has a “bonus retirement“, the more than 74,000 remaining police officers “will continue to lose hundreds of euros when they retire at 65.”
Likewise, they emphasized that with this legal modification “we are violate the right to equality and this is done in a blatant, provocative manner and in defiance of prudence”, while emphasizing that justifying this change by assimilating it to what has already happened in the Civil Guard since 2014 “constitutes an exercise in corporate provocation, because an error cannot be justified by another previous error.
Face the national emergency
After hearing the news, reported yesterday by this newspaper, the Popular Party criticized the Executive for having “politically used the greatest national tragedy that Spain can remember” to “stealthily introduce” the legal modification, provided for in the fifth final provision of the royal law. decree law that the BOE publishes this Tuesday, which allows the maintenance of the DAO.
Those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo criticized the fact of using an aid decree to guarantee the “protection” of a police command that they consider “similar” to Minister Marlaska “It is an insult to the victims and a deception to the Congress of Deputies”, because – popular sources emphasize – “at no time has the Executive communicated this intention”.
Furthermore, they emphasized that in its decision, reflected in the BOE, the Government “explicitly assumes national emergency» – the decree speaks of a “national emergency situation” – which he refused at the time to decree in order to assume sole command of the management of DANA. “The victims deserve to think only of their future and to see that all aid for reconstruction is mobilized as quickly as possible,” conclude these same sources.
