The situation is “critical and suffocating.” This is how the civil guards of Catalonia define the “spoliation” of skills they suffer and the 1,100 unfilled vacancies throughout the community. And the lack of personnel and the transfer of exclusive powers to the Mossos d’Esquadra is due, in the opinion of the professional association Jucil, to a studied dismantling by drip.
The powers of Borders and the Maritime Service are exclusive to the State Security Forces and Bodies (Bemérita and National Police), so “We will not allow dismantling through the back door”assures the general secretary of the association, Ángel Lezcano. In this sense, they denounce an attempt to “illegal transfer” to the Mossos and warns of new threats such as the possible closure of the GEDEX in Tarragona. Furthermore, it must be remembered that The Civil Guard continues to be excluded from the emergency service 112despite the agreement reached at the Security Board of December 2024.
And to that attempt to bring the Benémerita to the most absolute “institutional irrelevance” in Cataloniawe must add the deficit of agents in the squads. The association points out that without economic and social complements that encourage permanence, this community will continue to be a “passing destination”so it is necessary to declare Catalonia as an Area of Special Singularity, as was already done with the Basque Country.
Not to mention the “lack of means and their precariousness”which not only puts the lives of the agents at risk but also the safety of the citizens, Jucil highlights. Because “political gestures are useless if they are not accompanied by a real budget,” they conclude.
This has been conveyed by Lezcano and the Secretary of Communication, Mila Cívico, to the PP spokesperson in the Interior Commission of the Parliament of Catalonia, Alberto Villagrasa. The goal? Ensure that parliamentary support is translated into concrete budgetary measures and a deep institutional debate that prevents “the Civil Guard in Catalonia becomes a residual institution due to the lack of support and resources.
Serious salary gap with the Mossos
The inequality with the Mossos d’Esquadra is another stumbling block. For decades, agents have denounced the wage gap with the regional police before the apathy and disregard of the different Ministers of the Interiorin this case, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. The recent increase of 4,000 gross euros to the mossos, the increase in vacations and the reduction of their working hours have further aggravated this inequality.
“It is an unacceptable comparative grievance. This decision not only widens an already bleeding wage gapbut it definitively distances the promised salary equalization. It is a systematic contempt towards those who do the same work with fewer resources and worse conditions,” Jucil denounces.
Finally, they highlight the fact that Grande-Marlaska refuses to consider the Civil Guard as a risky profession while other regional and local police forces are recognized. They call it “humiliation” that the civil guards lack this legal protection, which the national police do not enjoy either, and they recall that the Council of Europe has already accepted their request for processing so that the civil guards have their rights to unionize and strike recognized. The Government must rule on this in the coming weeks.