Criticism of President Pedro Sánchez and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, but also of the PP with direct reference to its leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The demonstration called by the Police Salary Justice (Jusapol, the platform of agents born in 2017) and the two organizations that have emerged from it, the Police Justice Union (Jupol) and the Professional Association of the Guardia Civil Justice (Jucil), majority in both Bodies, passed through the center of Madrid this Saturday without the personal support of the two main parties of the right, PP and Vox. Only Ciudadanos, with MP Miguel Gutiérrez as a witness, took part in the mobilization called to demand improvements in agents’ salaries and retirements, and in which the PP was blamed.
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The distance between the PP and the three trade union organizations, marked since its appearance by a strong confrontation with the government of Sánchez, was also reflected in various banners in which Feijóo called for a different policy from that then in force by the executive of Mariano Rajoy with Juan Ignacio Zoido as interior minister, confronted the agents’ salary demands and which ended in 2018 with an agreement with other trade union organizations that Jusapol has since rejected as insufficient. “Real compensation yes. Feijóo does not make a zoido,” reads several posters with a photo of the two PP leaders.
PP sources told EL PAÍS a few days ago that they would not be taking part in the police protest this Saturday, contrary to what they had done on previous occasions. They argued that they did not want their presence to be misconstrued as the demonstration coincided with the May 28 primary election campaign. At the previous March 4 demonstration against the reform of the Citizen Security Law, known as the Gag Law, the PP was represented by People’s Party Deputy General Secretary Esteban González Pons and by Vox Javier Ortega, which Smith attended. The first, in November 2021, also against the changes to the gag law, was attended by Pablo Casado, then President of the Popular, and the leader of the far-right party, Santiago Abascal.
Demonstration of the National Police, Jupol and the Guardia Civil, this Saturday in Madrid. FERNANDO VILLAR (EFE)
The demonstration began at noon in Madrid’s Puerta de Alcalá and ended two hours later in front of the Congress of Deputies. The convening organizations estimated the number of participants at 80,000 and the government delegation reduced it to 7,500. In any case, the numbers are higher than those of the March protests, when Jusapol spoke of 30,000 demonstrators and the official figure of 4,000. However, they are a far cry from the November 2021 concentration data, when unions calculated 150,000 participants and the government delegation allowed 20,000 participants.
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The banner leading the march, with the slogan “resign now with dignity,” was held by the main leaders of Yusapol, Jupol and Jucil, as well as the CSIF, an organization whose detachment of prison officials has joined the protest. Just behind them, a protester held a sign that read “Sánchez, vote for you Txapote,” which the President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, said at the Madrid assembly in February – it comes from a video broadcast on the networks – and this has outraged the PSOE and the victims of terrorism alike.
A moment of demonstration this Saturday in Madrid. FERNANDO VILLAR (EFE)
The national secretary of Jucil, Ernesto Vilariño, had voiced those concerns about the PP leader just before the start of the demonstration, which he extended to Vox when he called on both formations to be themselves now that a long period of elections begins will formally “commit with their security forces to balance the retirements [de policías y guardias civiles] with the rest [los] policemen”, in relation to the autonomous bodies. Recently, the leaders of Yusapol met with members of both these parties and Ciudadanos to enlist their support for their demands.
Although the protest has focused on aligning the retirement conditions of the police and civil guard with those of the autonomous bodies, “the organizations criticize that they retire later and, moreover, with lower pensions”, a compensatory salary is demanded at the founding of Jusapol and later led by Jupol and Jucil was also very present. Police organizations insist that the 2018 agreement put the agents’ salaries a far cry from those of the Mossos, the Catalan Autonomous Police’s agents. However, government sources insist that the application of this agreement (which was completed in three tranches) has resulted in “the largest salary increase” in history for agents, with an overall increase of 33.3%. “A newly hired police officer earns 743 euros gross per month more than someone who did it before the agreement,” they explain as an example.
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