In the current Government, there are those who have experience in police operations. Not only the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Also Elma Saiz or Milagros Tolón. Both were delegates of the Government, the first in Navarra, between 2008 and 2012; the second in Castilla-La Mancha between 2023 and 2025. "I have been a delegate of the Government in Navarra and police action to guarantee compliance with a fundamental right, such as the right to strike, and also to maintain citizen security and order, always has to be proportionate," the current spokesperson for the Executive reflected this Thursday, after the controversy unleashed by the police charges during the day of the general strike.
The images of agents charging, hitting protesters and even spraying them with pepper spray were not liked within the Government. They provoked disapproval. Rejection. And in practically all of its partners, the demand for explanations and political responsibilities. Meanwhile, in the PSOE, according to party officials consulted, the feeling is growing that Marlaska does not control the Police or, more specifically, some sectors of this body.
This feeling has been established within the game due to a series of situations experienced. The head of the Interior confessed that he was not aware of the complaint of sexual assault against the Deputy Operational Director of the National Police (DAO), José Ángel González; He was forced to ask the Director General of the Police for explanations also for not having knowledge of a report from the National Center for Immigration and Borders (CENIF) that he gave to the judge that attributed a decisive role to the Moroccan security forces during the massive entry into Ceuta in July - here the judge asked the agents not to inform their superiors, but in the Government they do not understand why it was not communicated to the minister; or more recently due to the charges against public education teachers in Madrid who were demonstrating or the episodes experienced on 9/11. "I don't like images as a minister," Tolón already warned about the treatment of teachers. "An investigation has been opened by the National Police," he announced.
Faced with this perception, government sources defend that if it were the other way around, "if we said that it controls every last police officer, it would not like it nor would it seem right." And they add: "We ask the minister to know what happens down to the last police station."
After the incidents experienced with the pickets early on Wednesday, or at some moments of the concentrations in cities like Madrid, and the political storm unleashed, Marlaska was forced to order the director general of the Police to conduct an investigation to determine if the protocols were complied with.
Likewise, the minister has given the order that, from now on, pepper spray will not be used in the demonstration control devices, which was used in some actions of this 11-N against the protesters. A decision that provoked criticism and rejection from the main police unions. "It is not modernizing, nor is it progressive. It is leaving the agents sold out, defenseless."
"I have seen some images that I did not like," said Félix Bolaños, Minister of the Presidency. "They are images that we deeply dislike and in the face of which the Government does not remain impassive," said Elma Saiz, spokesperson for the Executive. "There were some images and some actions that, at first glance, are not liked and do not reconcile very well with the principles of proportionality," admitted Marlaska, justifying the decision to order an "immediate" and "very specific" investigation into those circumstances.
Within the PSOE there is the perception that the last chapters experienced represent a devilish dilemma: if Marlaska knew it and allowed herself, bad; but if he didn't know, even worse. It is the reflection that socialist sources convey.
That perception that the socialists convey privately, guarding their backs, that Marlaska does not control sectors of the Security Forces and Corps, is verbalized by parliamentary allies of the PSOE. "If he cannot control the Police, it is evident that he cannot be a minister," said the Compromís deputy assigned to Sumar, Alberto Ibáñez. "It cannot be that the police control the minister and not the other way around," said the federal coordinator of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maíllo.
