Jupol Secretary General Aarón Rivero made statements to the media in the courts of Plaza de Castilla on April 13.Gabriel Luengas (Europa Press)
In theory, an affiliate is a safe vote. On paper, whoever pays a union’s monthly dues has an interest in ensuring that the union has the widest possible representation and supports it in elections. But that’s only in theory and on paper. The national police union elections held last Wednesday show that this is not always the case in the moment of truth. Police Justice (Jupol), the union leading the offensive encouraged by right-wing parties against Pedro Sánchez’s government, lost four of the eight representatives it won in 2019 for the Police Council, the joint body negotiating between the agents and the Ministry of the Interior. The reason for the disaster is precisely that the 14,787 votes it received represent only 60% of the 24,312 affiliates it officially had at the end of May. When it won the union elections four years ago, it had around 16,000 members and 29,272 votes, more than twice as many as today.
After learning of the backlash, Jupol issued a statement limiting himself to accusing Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska of “dirty play and cheating” for his poor results. Hours later, a union spokesman told EL PAÍS that there were other factors behind the sharp fall in votes, including the low turnout, which remained at 54.6%. In fact, this is one of the arguments the organization uses to downplay the difference between the number of affiliates and the votes received. “This has affected all unions, whose votes have fallen compared to the affiliates they have in their ranks, and Jupol has been no exception in this respect,” he points out.
More information
This speaker indicates the date of the vote [que fue defendida por el propio sindicato frente a otra una semana antes] It has also impacted the union’s election results, as it coincided with a period when numerous police officers were on furlough, “as well as the operational mobility which these days means many agents are off their usual squads to do backup calls to cover in the summer.” in coastal areas or, for example, in Operation Passage of the Strait”.
In this sense, he adds that the general elections to be held on July 23 “have resulted in many police officers having to bring their holidays forward because they have to take part in the special election campaign, which has led to a further reduction in the manpower available.” in these police council elections.” In the 2019 election, the election was also held in June, on the 19th, and then 73% of the agents went to the polls. The Unified Police Union (SUP), which had held the majority until then, suffered from the discrepancy between the number of members and the number of voters, receiving only 9,517 votes despite almost 18,000 members at the time.
However, other union sources point to other causes for the decline in votes for Jupol and most notably the difference between affiliates and votes received. “Four years ago they presented themselves as something different from the traditional unions and they ended up being just like them. Many of them have let us down,” says a member of the Police Salary Justice (Jusapol), the platform created in 2017 by police officers and Civil Guards to demand wage equality with the Mossos d’Esquadra and which laid the groundwork for it has Jupol turned up. “You promised a lot and kept almost nothing. They sold smoke,” says another agent who left the union long ago.
What affects most is what happens closer. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
subscribe to
Natan Espinosa, one of the founders of Jusapol and now director of the Equalization Ya (EYA) lists, a Jupol spin-off, has influence on this lineage. “In these four years they have not adhered to their electoral manifesto, they have changed their code of ethics to comply with it and they have not made any progress on equalizing wages,” he denounces, not only because of the loss of votes for his former party to explain union, but also the low participation in the base scale, which includes more agents. Espinosa assures that if his Jupol had not participated in these elections in coalition with the Police Union Alternative (ASP), it would have achieved even worse results.
Similarly, the leader of another union, who asked not to be identified and blamed the drop on non-compliance with the program that led Jupol to win the 2019 election, said: “You have certain things that what they said they would do.” They would never do that,” but also to the alleged financial scandals that have rocked the union in recent years. This led to the dismissal of its then-Secretary-General, José María García, in June 2021 for allegedly debiting the organization’s accounts with allegedly unjustified expenses for clothing, medicines and other personal purchases. It was recently announced the opening of an investigation into the alleged use of bank cards by various current Jupol leaders, which is still being investigated in a court in Madrid.
Finally, some sources attribute some of the affiliates’ distancing to the alleged image that Jupol conveyed of its closeness to the PP, to Ciudadanos and, most importantly, to Vox. “When Yusapol was born [en 2017], political neutrality was one of his banners. Now all parties are treated equally,” says one of the agents who joined this movement and is now disillusioned. “I joined to defend my professional and work interests and not to organize demonstrations for politicians,” says another. Espinosa, President of the EYA, points in the same direction, highlighting the presence on the Jupol lists of the policeman Samuel Vázquez, who wanted to run for the municipal elections on May 28 on the Vox lists for the city council of Fuenlabrada (Madrid). . , which in his opinion was “cast”. [a Jupol] in certain political ideals.
In the last year and a half, the union has organized three demonstrations in Madrid, two of them to lobby for a political law, the reform of the Citizen Security Law – the so-called Gag Law – and not to demand wage and work improvements. Both were encouraged by the three right-wing parties with the prominent presence of their leaders. At the first event, held on November 21, 2021, Jupol managed to gather 20,000 people in central Madrid, according to the government delegation. By the second of March last year, there were only 4,000, a fifth. During its election campaign, the union claimed that it had the perceived success of thwarting gag law reform, when in fact it was dissension among left-wing parties in Congress that led to the failure to change the norm.