Thousands of Catalan teachers supported a general strike day this Tuesday to demand salary and educational improvements in a climate of added tension with the Generalitat of Catalonia. The protest coincided with the revelation that two agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra infiltrated an assembly of teachers called to prepare for the mobilizations.
The main friction is not only in the infiltration, but in that Educació denies having requested it while Interior now reviews whether the operation was timely and proportional. The opposition in the Parliament has taken advantage of that clash to request the dismissal of the director general of the Catalan police, Josep Lluís Trapero.
Niubó denied requesting reports on infiltration
Esther Niubó, Minister of Education, assured in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio that her department did not commission any report nor did it make any request regarding the covert presence of agents in the teaching assembly. The head of Education thus placed the action outside her scope of decision despite it affecting a meeting linked to the sector's strike.
"I don't know who ordered it and I don't know the purpose and objectives of the operation" - Esther Niubó, Minister of Education, Generalitat de Catalunya
In that same intervention, Niubó added that the timing of the action would not have been the best. He also demanded clarifications from the Departament d'Interior and the Mossos d'Esquadra to know what motivated the operation and for what purpose it was carried out.
Then he insisted that he maintains confidence in the professionalism of the body, but linked any more precise assessment to the explanations that Interior and the Catalan police can provide. The episode has aggravated the discontent of a group that had already called for the protest for labor and educational reasons.
Parlon will review if the operation was proportional before deciding
Núria Parlon, Councillor of Interior, downplayed any immediate decision and framed the analysis in the operational field. Her department plans to review in the coming hours both the opportunity and the proportionality of the infiltration before adopting measures.
"Here, what we probably have to assess is the opportunity of this measure, the proportionality of these measures, and from there we will make the appropriate decisions, always from an operational point of view, which is where this decision has been made" - Núria Parlon, Minister of the Interior, Generalitat de Catalunya
While the Interior Ministry postpones a conclusion, the parliamentary opposition has already named its political demand and has requested the dismissal of Josep Lluís Trapero. The request comes in the midst of a strike and raises the institutional cost of a police action that has fully impacted the educational conflict.
Furthermore, the controversy adds to another recent friction between Education and Interior over the project to incorporate Mossos d'Esquadra agents in educational centers that request it to help in conflict management. That plan became known through unofficial channels, a precedent that had already strained the relationship between both departments before Tuesday's strike.
For now, the most concrete data set by the Interior is the immediate political deadline with which Parlon will work, who announced that in the coming hours he will assess the opportunity and proportionality of the action before making operational decisions.