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Date Published: 21/04/2021
ARCHIVED - Spanish government steps in to vaccinate police officers in Catalonia after separatist politics creates vaccine-gap
Police unions had complained that National Police and Guardia Civil officers were caught in the midst of a political battle and were not given the same consideration by the Catalan authorities as regional and local officers.
Image: No such problems in neighbouring Valencia where police, security and other essential services are being vaccinated without politics getting in the way.
Although the topic of Catalan separatism has been less prominent in the media recently, the political disagreements between the Catalan government and the Spanish national government have never stopped, the latest disagreement being over the vaccination of police officers working in the region.
There are several police forces in Spain, with the National Police and Guardia Civíl run by the state, and overseen in each of the autonomous regions by the Government Delegate in each particular region, as well as regional and local municipal police forces controlled by the regional governments and local councils.
In the case of Cataluña, the Mossos are controlled and financed by the Catalan government.
The latest argument has been about who pays to vaccinate the various police forces in the region and
following weeks of disagreements between the Ministries of Health and the Interior, the Spanish government has finally decided,that it will step in and take charge of vaccinating National Police and Guardia Civil officers stationed in Catalonia against coronavirus, after the regional government failed to do so.
The Health Minister, Carolina Darias, has accused the Catalan regional government of failing to innoculate the officers and protect them, as other regions have done.
Whereas members of the regional Mossos d’Esquadra force have almost all received vaccinations, just 15 per cent of officers in Catalonia belonging to the National Police and Guardia Civil forces, which the region appears to consider not to be their responsibility, have received their vaccines. The average figure for vaccinated officers from these forces in other parts of Spain is 76 per cent.
Police unions and the Interior Minister have for weeks been complaining about the matter and insisting that the central government should take charge of vaccinating officers, something that Sra. Darias has at last announced will happen. She said that doses would now be earmarked for these officers and they would all be vaccinated, but has not specified whether they would be subtracted from Catalonia's quota.
Police are considered to be essential workers due to the high level of contact with the public during their daily work.
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