In the midst of conflict with the Civil Guard - after the dismissal of colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos followed by the resignation of the force's number two Laurentino Ceña - the Spanish government is trying to calm the waters. Although it was not initially planned, interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska appeared this Tuesday after the weekly cabinet meeting, his tie a symbolic green, colour of the Spanish paramilitary corps. He did so to announce the Sánchez government's approval for a decree to complete the creation of salary parity across Spain's police and security bodies. He also announced the appointment of a new official to replace Ceña. He treated it all as completely normal.
The announcements came after 48 stormy hours in the Spanish interior ministry. The dismissal of colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos as head of the Civil Guard's Madrid command was made public on Monday, following a judicial report he had prepared linking the spread of coronavirus in Spain to this year's International Women's Day demonstration on March 8th. The sacking was followed by the decision of the force's deputy operational director, Laurentino Ceña, to resign due to disagreements with the minister.
However, the minister's response was to minimize the importance of the resignation, stressing that Ceña was due to retire on March 23rd - although he had agreed to carry on until June 2nd - and he thanked the officer for his services. His vacancy will be filled by major general Pablo Salas Moreno, who will be promoted to lieutenant general. Marlaska placed it in the context of a "new impetus".
As for the dismissal of Pérez de los Cobos, Marlaska did not want to go into the reasons. He limited himself to talking about a "reshuffle of the management team" and that the issue was about a "reasonable policy of rebuilding new teams based on maximum confidence." He completely dodged questions about the March 8th judicial investigation. "A natural process of remodeling, this dismissal has no other issue, reason or purpose," he insisted. While saying that De los Cobos has an "exemplary resume", he also noted that "there are a lot of people in the Civil Guard who have equally spectacular resumes".
On the other hand, with the decree approved today, the process of giving Civil Guard agents salary parity with the rest of police forces will be completed. The cabinet approved spending of 247 million euros to pay for the third and final stage of the process. The first two salary rises to instill parity were approved in October 2018 and April 2019. According to Marlaska, Civil Guard officers will get their pay rises in the coming months, retroactively. The process will mean an average increase of 20% in salaries.
Sources in the ministry asserted that it had been planned all along to deal with the issue today, as it had taken "a long time to prepare" and involved "battles with the Treasury."
Ceña's decision to walk
According to Civil Guard sources, the resignation of the corps's number two is directly linked to the sacking of Pérez de los Cobos,which was communicated to the Madrid command head on Sunday and made public yesterday. Ceña, 65, was about to retire, but had decided to continue in office after the coronavirus crisis broke out in Spain, where he became one of the visible faces of Spain's state of alarm press conferences, which always featured uniformed personnel in the first few weeks of the emergency. The dismissal has created irritation in the paramilitary body. Laurentino Ceña had been the deputy operational director of the Civil Guard for more than a year and a half, after being appointed by Marlaska. By law, it is the minister who has to choose his replacement.
"I will never conjugate the word interference"
After completing his explanation for all that had gone on as a simple team remodeling, Marlaska commented that, after more than 30 years in the judiciary, he is very "clear" about the powers of a minister and the powers of a judge. For that reason, he said, he wanted to make that clear that "I do not conjugate the word interference, nor will I ever conjugate it."