Catalan police does not accept control from Madrid

Home Affairs ministry will study a legal response to the Mossos "takeover"

Catalan home affairs minister, Joaquim Forn, and police chief officer, Josep Lluís Trapero
Catalan home affairs minister, Joaquim Forn, and police chief officer, Josep Lluís Trapero / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

September 23, 2017 03:50 PM

The Catalan police does not accept being ruled from Madrid. This is the corps’ response to the takeover of its command by the Spanish government this Saturday morning. The Catalan minister of Home Affairs, Joaquim Forn, announced that the Mossos d’Esquadra police chief made clear his disagreement in a security coordination meeting on Saturday. Forn also said that his ministry will study a legal response to the Mossos “takeover”.

Measure “unacceptable”, says Home Affairs minister

“We denounce the Spanish government’s will of seizing the Mossos,” he added. Indeed, the Catalan minister of Home Affairs recalled that Madrid has already taken control of the Catalan finances and now they want to do the same with the police. For him, the measure “bypasses all the institutions that the current legal framework already has in place to guarantee the security of Catalonia.” He also highlighted that Catalonia has already bodies to do it and, therefore, finds the action “unacceptable.”