Read in Catalan

Thousands of officers belonging to Spain's National Police and Civil Guard forces arrived in Barcelona from all over Spain this Saturday to stage a protest. Their demand was for salary parity between their forces and the autonomous police forces of Catalonia and the Basque Country - the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Ertzaintza, respectively -  in a protest in which they marched with the support of the leader of the Cs (Citizens) party, Albert Rivera, as well as the head of the PP (Popular Party) in Catalonia, Xavier García Albiol.

Spanish police demonstration wages Sergi Alcàzar

The march, which police agents attended out of uniform, was called by the Jusapol Foundation, which is critical of the Spanish government's proposal to improve relative pay parity for the different police forces, because it considers that the plan has too much small print and abusive clauses that could imply a loss of employee rights.

Spanish police demonstration Sergi Alcàzar

The protest began in the central Barcelona square of Plaça Urquinaona and proceeded downtown on Via Laietana, behind a banner bearing the slogan "Parity now. Salary justice", with the officers and in many cases members of their families waving Spanish flags as well as those of different autonomous regions, including some Catalan senyeres.

The demonstration eventually reached the Passeig de Picasso.

One group assembled a human castle - a three-person pillar - while displaying both the Catalan and Spanish flags.

Union inactivity

In statements to the press, the president of the Jusapol Foundation, Natán Espinosa, said that today's demonstration was just the start. There will be a similar march on February 3rd in Seville, and over the next two months the police forces will protest their demands on the streets of major cities all over Spain.

According to Espinosa, the proposal made by the Spanish government, which has promised to allocate a budget of up to 1.5 billion euros in three years to cover salary increases, contains "a lot of small print and abusive clauses", and for this reason they demand full wage parity comparison without losing any of the employee benefits they have acquired, such as time off for personal matters and access to accommodation in police barracks.

Jusapol, which was founded due to what Espinosa calls the "inactivity" of the unions in the push for wage parity, has also promoted a motion on this measure in the European Parliament and at the end of January plans to deliver more than half a million signatures to the Spanish congress calling for a popular legislative initiative (ILP), in order to start the passage through the Spanish parliament of legislation to put wage parity into law.