Josep Lluís Trapero resigns as mayor of the Mossos after internal conflicts in the Government

In April 2017, Josep Lluís Trapero took office as mayor of the Mossos in an unusual ceremony at the Palau de la Generalitat. There was overbooking: the president Carles Puigdemont, the president of the Parliament Carme Forcadell, the vice president Oriol Junqueras and seven councillors, commanders of the forces and security bodies of the State, of the army... “The archbishop was missing!”, remember those present, and it was not because someone did not think of inviting him. Trapero has never been just any mosso. In uniform, he never shied away from the spotlight; with suits, they have gone out. The reactions to his resignation as director of the Mossos range from the “predictable” of his defenders to the toast with Corpinat of his detractors.

Focusing on the personal relationship between Trapero and the Minister of the Interior is “swampy terrain”, as Núria Parlon herself recognized when announcing the replacement in the Ministry, but within the Government there is no doubt that the departure of the major responds to an “ego problem”. Trapero was Salvador Illa's star signing this term; He agreed to take off his uniform, but did not foresee that the tandem with Parlon was not such. It implied a political hierarchy in which the eldest was not at the top and, unless the councilor gave him the keys to the department, in a field of permanent disagreement, resignation was the only possible outcome.

Trapero was trapped between political servitude and the limited powers of the position over the operations of the Mossos. For him, being a mosso is more than a profession. In the solemnity of the Palau, upon becoming a major, he confessed to the audience that he lived his mission “from transcendence.” He led the Mossos to its operational majority, as demonstrated after the Ramblas attacks; He was a hero and, later, a victim of the independence movement, while the character was surpassing the position. “They already knew who they were signing,” Government sources now reflect. What they did not expect was that his jump into politics would not include a four-year commitment and would end with the closest thing to the “Well, molt bé, well goodbye” that went viral after the 17-A attacks.

The eldest has seen how the opposition accused him of “lying” about the arrangement of the Kings' visit to Montserrat and, despite himself, he apologized for the infiltration of the Mossas in a teachers' assembly. Trapero arrived as a superstar and was eclipsed in the office. ERC tempted the PSC with its vote for the budgets in exchange for the fall of the mayor. Meanwhile, Parlon has managed to grease the relationship with Trapero's detractors within the PSC and the ERC mayors. “Time has proven us resoundingly right,” the Republicans maintain. “Now there will be a truce,” they add, because the election of Commissioner Ferran López as a replacement pleases them. Having been in charge of the Mossos during the intervention of autonomy with article 155 of the Constitution is not a burden. López “saved the Mossos” so that they remain today, maintain former Interior officials from different parties.

Although the resolution of the entrenched conflict in the Interior satisfies (almost) everyone, it continues to increase the “internal run of movements” in the Government, some fueled from within itself. The operation carried out in recent weeks is worrying due to the erosion of the image of efficiency that Illa imposes on her councillors. The replacements in the subgovernor are more than those listed and the causes – “personal reasons” – range from wear and tear due to the president's demands to inexperience in office. Illa promised excellence in management and the story of the successive crises in Education or Interior, passing through Rodalies and even the Meteocat forecasts undermine public trust.

The Government is “calm”, they maintain, and continuity for one more term is taken for granted due to the non-appearance of a viable alternative. But it is no consolation. One after another, the surveys show that settling into “nothing happens” is not realistic. The PSC is on a downward trend, while Aliança Catalana grows and not only at the expense of Junts, entrusted to the umpteenth Puigdemont effect. The sanitary cordons can support another Illa government, but Silvia Orriols has been given the face of the leader of the opposition.