The tension in the plenary session of the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat has escalated this Wednesday, February 22 to unusual levels and has forced the mayoress, Nuria Marinto paralyze the plenary session for more than half an houran action, to say the least, unusual. Marín has been about to suspend the Plenary session definitivelyafter the protests by the SPL-CME union of the Urban Guard de L’Hospitalet have made it impossible for the councilors to intervene or, more specifically, that of the Councilor for Security jose castro -better known as Pepe Castro-, against whom most of the criticism was directed.
The tension has gradually increased after Castro gave an account of the report on the application and incidents of the Local Security Plan during the year 2022. A report that reflects a 8.5% increase in crimes in L’Hospitalet compared to 2019mainly, due to the fact that the Internet scams and vehicle theft.
Thus, after the interventions of the different opposition groups and Castro has spoken again, who has criticized that “two weeks ago this union left the work table” and that he recalled in plenary session that the next March 16 there will be union selections in the Urban Police of L’Hospitalet. Right after, the Councilor for Security has defended that in the last three years “very important agreements have been reached & rdquor; and, after that, heLocal police protests have broken out: “Three years ago I loved this Urban Police and now I don’t& rdquor ;, an agent snapped just before leaving the plenary room.
Even at the time of Castro’s intervention, which he has not been able to follow due to the protests of the agents, has intervened the mayoress Núria Marín to reproach to the assistants of the local police that the Plenary “It is not an assembly of the Urban Guard& rdquor ;, some words to which the SPL-CME have responded with more beeps and shouts.
? VIDEO | Protests by a police union (@SplCme) of #LHospitalet forced to paralyze the plenary session @LHAjuntament pic.twitter.com/aElqEpOXzB
— THE NEWSPAPER L’Hospitalet (@elperiodicoLH) February 22, 2023
The mayoress has tried to move on to the next point, to which the debate has ended up being transferred and which, after a new intervention by Castro It has led to the protest that has led Marín to announce that “the plenary session is adjourned& rdquor;although he finally reprimanded himself a few minutes later, without agents of the Urban Police in the room, who They have moved their protests to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento.
the protests
The main criticisms of the SPL-CME union relate to the movements in the head of the body of the local police of L’Hospitalet and the organizational changes. Via social networks, from the union they have explained that they have decided to be present in plenary to express their “rejection of the management of the Security and Coexistence Area, as well as the slave-owning proposal to change the workforce’s quadrant”.
The problems in the Urban Guard of L’Hospitalet, whose staff has been in conflict with the leadership for months, increased at the end of October, when a corporal of the Urban Guard of L’Hospitalet pointed out a month ago alleged irregularities during the competitive examinations for the position of Superintendent -a position that currently only exists in Catalonia in the Badalona Urban Guard-, for which only this corporal and the mayor appeared Ramon Dosaigües, the current head of the town’s Urban Guard.
The corporal was excluded from the selection process for being declared unfit in the psycho-technical test carried out on September 28 and 29, although, according to his own complaint, without receiving any explanation or technical evaluation.
For this reason, the corporal filed an appeal to request the annulment of the selection process and the announcement that declared him excluded and explained that he considered that its constitutional principle of equality had been violated at the time when the other candidate attended the performance of two phases of the test dressed in uniform, displaying the distinctive chevrons of the category of mayor, along with the insignia of the head of the corps and with the regulatory weapon .
After the appeal, the City Council proposed to the Local Government Board agree to withdraw from the call, although the decision was separated at all times from the corporal’s appeal. The security area of the City Council sent an email, to which this newspaper had access, in which it was explained that the consistory had detected an “error in the bases of the call & rdquor ;. This error, according to the letter from the City Council, consisted in the fact that among the requirements of the call it was specified that to apply for the position it was necessary to “be an official & rdquor;, when it should be a contest of “free opposition & rdquor;.
Thus, as explained by the Councilor for Security, Pepe Castro, to this newspaper, the contest for the position of Superintendent has already been called again and, with the process of presenting candidacies closed, “the same applicants are back.” The selective tests will be carried out again in March and the process is expected to be closed in April.
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For his part, Castro, who denounces that today’s protests have been “a full-fledged political act”, defends that the figure of the Superintendent had already existed in the Hospital Urban Police and, regarding the accusations by the unions that he is a process designed by hand to give the position to Dosaigües, the councilor maintains that it is a public contest to which “members of other police forces or superior graduates who were not police could present themselves.”
Lastly, regarding the changes in the workforce, the Councilor for Security has demanded that the union “clarify what they want”. “It seems that they want to work to do less,” Castro said. With regard to the SPL-CME, it has already announced that they will maintain the protests and has called a demonstration for this Friday, coinciding with the inauguration of the ‘Village’ of the Mobile World Congress in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.