Judge orders Catalan police to investigate possible malfeasance in vaccination of Spanish police

BarcelonaA Barcelona judge has ordered the Catalana police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, to investigate whether the Generalitat is guilty of malfeasance for not vaccinating Spanish National Police and Guardia Civil officers in Catalonia at the same rate as the regional police force until it was ordered to do so by the Catalan High Court. This has been agreed by the holder of the court of instruction number 17 of Barcelona in a ruling advanced by El Mundo and to which Efe has had access. It agrees to initiate preliminary proceedings following a complaint against the Generalitat filed by the National Police union Jupol and Guardia Civil association Jucil for the crimes against workers' rights and malfeasance.

In addition to ordering the Mossos to investigate, the judge has also decided to refer the complaint of Jupol and Jucil in the Prosecutor's Office to request the proceedings it deems appropriate to determine whether the Generalitat incurred in a crime in the process of vaccination of the National Police and Guardia Civil in Catalonia. The Catalan High Court believed there was an "appearance of discrimination" against the National Police and the Civil Guard in the process of vaccination against the coronavirus in Catalonia. Therefore, the High Court ordered the Generalitat on April 27 to guarantee "immediate and undelayed" vaccination to Guardia Civil and National Police officers in Catalonia "without any excuse" so that within ten days the same proportion were vaccinated as in the Mossos, as finally ended up happening.

The Court believed there was "eloquent" data provided by the Generalitat in this process, in which the Ministry of Health detailed that in Catalonia by April 22 80.3% of the Mossos d'Esquadra, 79.1% of the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona, 71.2% of local police, 9.9% of the National Police and 6.3% of the Guardia Civil had been vaccinated. The Generalitat complied with the order of the High Court and on May 8 had already vaccinated more than 3,700 National Police and Guardia Civil officers in Catalonia, which equated their situation to that of the Mossos d'Esquadra.

At the time, the Department of Health explained that the vaccination of the National Police and the Guardia Civil was slow to start because of problems in the delivery of names by the forces. In addition, sources in the Health Dpt argued that officers were reluctant to receive AstraZeneca jabs, which were being administered to all essential groups, and that these two security forces wee seeking vaccination "à la carte", with vaccines being administered in barracks and police stations, depending on the work shifts. Finally, when they agreed to mobile vaccination points, according to the Health Dpt, they had to stop inoculation due to the precautionary suspension of the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. When this vaccine was once again cleared, National Police and the Guardia Civil officers were affected by the age limit set by the Ministry of Health, which vetoed its use for the under-60s, without exception.