Spanish Police Protest, Demanding More Pay Amid Catalan Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Thousands of police officers protested outside government offices in Madrid to demand pay increases with the country immersed in a political crisis that has thrown security forces into the public spotlight.

More than 3,000 police officers joined a march down Madrid's central boulevard, the Paseo de la Castellana, to the interior ministry, according to Antonio Vazquez, spokesman for the association that organized the demonstration. The protesters were demanding the government pay the national police and the civic guard the same as regional police forces, Vazquez said. Currently, the pay gap is around 800 euros a month, he said.

The protest, which organizers said is among the biggest by police in Spanish history, takes place as national police and civic guards face public scrutiny following the crackdown on voters in an illegal Oct. 1 independence referendum in Catalonia. While the central government has defended the police forces' behavior, the Catalan government has said they used disproportionate violence and that more than 800 people received medical attention. In subsequent days, police were kicked out of hotels in different parts of Catalonia and pelted with stones.

In Friday's march, on duty police and civil guards protecting the interior ministry applauded the chants by the demonstrators. One chant was, "Mossos get paid, police do the work" -- a snub at the Catalan police, known as Mossos d'Esquadra, who chose not participate in the Oct. 1 crackdown on voters in Catalonia.

The spokesman Vazquez said that the march was unrelated to the current political situation and that the demands are long standing. The main speech ended with demonstrators chanting "Long live the national police, long live Spain, long live the civil guard, long live the Constitution, long live the King."

To contact the reporter on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at rorihuela@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Charles Penty at cpenty@bloomberg.net, Ben Sills