Mossos d’Esquadra in the spotlight

President Quim Torra and interior minister Miquel Buch are to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to tackle the fallout from the heavy-handed tactics used by the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, against anti-fascist protesters at political rallies in Girona and Terrassa on Thursday, which ended with 42 members of the public and 12 officers injured in Girona alone.

The far-left CUP party again called for the resignations of Buch and police commanders yesterday, after one of its MPs, Maria Sirvent, was wounded in the hand by a rubber bullet while helping a fallen child in Terrassa. The left-wing ERC and Catalunya en Comú-Podem parties also called for explanations of the Mossos’ conduct, while the unionist PSC and Cs parties showed support for the police. Meanwhile, police unions called for the force to be “depoliticised” and pointed out that while Buch spoke about taking action against officers, the head of the Mossos, Andreu Martínez, described the actions of the riot police officers as “proportional”, for warning the crowds before they charged them.

Yesterday began with a blunt message from Torra in the morning, giving Buch four days to bring order to the Catalan police, although things calmed down in the afternoon with the announcement of Sunday’s meeting. In a statement from Slovenia, Torra announced that he had agreed with the minister to meet “to see if any bad practice had taken place” and “to make any necessary changes to the protocols for action”, although he ruled out making any changes to personnel in the interior department.

In media interviews yesterday morning, Buch admitted the possibility that some officers may have gone too far in dealing with the protesters against the rallies organised by the far-right Vox party, and he announced an internal investigation because “some of the images seen do not fit with the model of a democratic police force.”