You don't need to be a prize fighter to start a bar brawl. A few words from a government undersecretary like Rafael Pérez, Spanish secretary of state for security, were quite sufficient to open up a controversy with not only the Catalan pro-independence parties, but also with the Socialist politician's own coalition partners in the Comuns. In his case, all it took was a description he made yesterday of the Spanish National Police base in Via Laietana, in Barcelona, as a “symbol of public service” and “democracy”. Today, the Spanish government came out in the wake of these statements. While they avoided criticising the second-ranked figure of their own interior ministry, they did acknowledge the obvious thing that was forgotten yesterday: that the Via Laietana police station "was a place of repression and torture." It should be noted that the Catalan Socialist Party has positioned itself in favour of relocating the current Spanish police headquarters in Barcelona and repurposing the building.
Asked about the controversy at the press conference after today's Spanish cabinet meeting, minister-spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez said that it was not up to her to "interpret anyone's words" and that the Spanish government's opinion was that the building has been "a place of repression and torture”. In this regard, she insisted that the executive seeks to "dignify the democratic memory" and "respond to those who suffered persecution at other times." The Socialist politician countered that what the secretary of state wanted to do was "highlight the role of the National Police in the whole territory of our country, also in Catalonia and Barcelona".
It is not to be known whether these words will serve to calm the spirits. ERC spokesperson Gabriel Rufián appeared today in Congress, demanding the "rectification" or "resignation" of Socialist undersecretary Pérez. The Junts party also demanded explanations from the Spanish government. And even from coalition partners Unidas Podemos, and specifically from their Catalan associates in the Comuns, a rectification by the interior minister Marlaska was demanded. Gerardo Pisarello denounced that the statements by Pérez, made during a police awards ceremony in the building itself, signify a whitewashing of the "history of violence" at the police station.
A history of violence
An historical memory plaque placed by the Barcelona city council outside the police station building at Via Laietana, number 43 tells the story. In fact, the plaque has been vandalised many times despite its location just metres from the police station's front entrance. The building became a police station in 1929, and in its first years was already known as a centre of repression against workers and trade unions. In 1941 the Franco dictatorship made it the headquarters for the so-called Political-Social Brigade, whose job was to stifle political dissidence. The historical memory plaque reads: "From 1941 until the return of democracy after Franco's death in 1975, this building was the centre of Francoist repression in Barcelona. Scores of anti-Francoists were held in its unsanitary, crowded cells, suffering all kinds of torture in the interrogations."