Former Mossos d'Esquadra chief Eduard Sallent leaves the police force

BarcelonaThe Mossos d'Esquadra commissioner Eduard Sallent will leave the police force in the coming weeks. Sallent was currently the head of the South Metropolitan region, but he has served as the chief of the Catalan police on two separate occasions: first during Quim Torra's government and then during Pere Aragonès's. When Salvador Illa's PSC party returned to power in Catalonia, the new Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, and the new Director of the Police, Josep Lluís Trapero, dismissed him and appointed Commissioner Miquel Esquius in his place. Sallent's decision to request a leave of absence, first reported by El País and confirmed by ARA, has already been communicated to police headquarters.

Eduard Sallent joined the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police force) as a patrol officer in 1997. A 1998 graduate in philosophy from the University of Barcelona, ​​he was active in the National Federation of Students of Catalonia (FNEC) in his youth, alongside figures such as Quim Forn, Elisenda Paluzie, and David Mad. The year before finishing his degree, he decided to join the Mossos d'Esquadra. He began in the Selva and Gironès regions and by 2001 had risen to the rank of corporal. One of the biggest leaps in his career came in 2014, after four years as a superintendent. He was appointed head of mediation and, three years later, became head of intelligence, a position he held during the August 17th attacks. In 2019, he was promoted to head of the General Information Commissariat. Sallent, often viewed with suspicion by some due to his past ties to the FNEC and the Catalan independence movement, didn't become a commissioner the first time he tried. But in 2019, he finally succeeded. He was then immediately appointed head of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) under Miquel Buch's leadership at the Ministry of the Interior, with Major Josep Lluís Trapero sidelined due to the legal proceedings related to the October 1st referendum. This move was criticized, and the internal turmoil foreshadowed a critical period on the streets, marked by post-trial protests and the pandemic. Sallent formed a partnership with Pere Ferrer, the police director, an alliance that endured.

Once acquitted in the trial for the October 1st operation, the new Minister of the Interior, Miquel Sàmper, reinstated Major Trapero as head of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police). Neither Sàmper nor Trapero trusted Sallent, with whom there was no rapport, and he was removed from his position. Between 2019 and 2020, he became head of the South Metropolitan Police Region, one of the most challenging in the country.

The Return

In 2021, new winds blew through the Catalan Ministry of the Interior, which for the first time was governed by the ERC party with Joan Ignasi Elena at the helm. The minister decided to remove Trapero and appoint Commissioner Josep Maria Estela as head of the force. However, he also brought back Sallent, placing him as deputy chief. But there was no harmony between Sallent and Estela, as the latter felt that the former overstepped his bounds in several decisions. The situation deteriorated to the point that Elena dismissed Estela and reinstated Eduard Sallent as head of the force. With Estela's dismissal in 2022, Sallent consolidated his position as head of the force, and the ministry eventually nominated him for the rank of major, a position he earned but ultimately failed to fill. standbySallent's term as police chief ended in the wake of Puigdemont's return to the Catalan Parliament in the summer of 2024. With the PSC taking power in the Generalitat and Trapero assuming leadership of the police force, everyone assumed Sallent would step down due to their long-standing strained relationship. This proved to be the case, and he has now decided to leave the force.