The Valencian executive lodged a complaint with the president of the government, the socialist Pedro Sanchezthe urgent need for more 115 soldiers assigned to the regional police to reach the 500 places agreed at the time with the Interior against 385 currently.
In its request, the Valencian government has already warned Pedro Sánchez that the situation of lack of troops could worsen and vacancies will increase to 125because heThe workforce is aging and many have reached retirement age. And he also warned him that if this situation happened will not be able to guarantee services beyond static serviceslike those planned at the Palace of the Generalitat or the Valencian Cortes.
More than 80 fewer soldiers in 11 years
In absolute figures, the national police attached to the Generalitat Valenciana increased from 476 soldiers in 2013 to 385 today. This figure means that was reduced by 81 agents in 11 years. At an average of 7.36 soldiers in each of those years.
This circumstance is added to other questions pending in internal resolutions, such as the necessary increase in National Police and Civil Guard agentswith obsolete personnel catalogs with the increase in population and the arrival of immigrants.
And this also adds to the situation presented by certain barracks of the Armament Institute in Castellónwhere the Provincial Council led by Marta Barrachina had to assume an investment of 220,000 euros to repair and update at least four of them. Some did not even have adequate changing rooms.
The distribution of the 115 soldiers that the Generalitat Valenciana now needs is as follows: 103 national police officers, 10 agents and two sub-inspector group leaders. The situation is critical. And Pedro Sánchez has been informed of this, at least for almost a week. Because the Valencian government informed him through the document that Carlos Mazón sent him before the meeting this Friday in Moncloa between the two.
The 500 National Police agents that the Valencian Executive mentions in its claim are those that the Spanish Government has agreed with the Generalitat itself through an agreement. This agreement has expired since September 2022still under the government of Ximo Puig.
The National Police units assigned to the Autonomous Police of Valencia are currently distributed in four police stations: Alicante, Castellón, Elche and Valencia. Three of these four cities, all except Elche, are provincial capitals. But Elche is the third city in the Valencian Community, preceded in number of inhabitants only by Valencia and Alicante. This situation is not exclusive to the Valencian Community. Other autonomy, all governed by the PP, are in the same situation.
According to the document sent to Pedro Sánchez, the Ministry of the Interior, which directs Fernando Grande Marlaskaindicated that it considers “essential to guarantee the effective assumption by these autonomous communities of the obligations to contribute to the financing of the respective attached units by covering an annual amount equivalent to 50% of the maintenance”. In other words, the government and the Community share the cost of this maintenance.
The Generalitat Valenciana understands that the cost of signing this new agreement would amount to 12 million euros to be paid from 2026because the new agreement would not be signed until April 2025 and the subsequent merit competition would not be resolved until September of the same year, so in 2025 it would be up to you to pay a third of that year’s agreement there: four million euros.
As OKDIARIO published last May, the Valencian Community reached 58,141 criminal offenses in the first three months of 2024. A figure that exceeds crimes from the same period in 2023 by 1,590while there were 56,551. As a percentage, the the increase is 2.8%. All this, according to data provided by the Interior Ministry’s crime report for the first quarter.
Already at the time, the Generalitat Valenciana and the police unions had lodged a complaint with the socialist government. Pedro Sánchez an increase in troops. But that didn’t happen.
