• Interior.Marlaska rules out resigning and denies, despite the evidence, having interfered in the work of the Civil Guard to defend the Government
  • Pérez de los Cobos.The order to dismiss Pérez de los Cobos reveals that Grande-Marlaska lied in Congress and in the Senate
  • Opposition.PP, Vox and Cs demand the "resignation" of Marlaska after a document that shows that he "lied" and gave "an illegal order"

The dismissal of the head of the Civil Guard in Madrid, Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos, was revealed by this newspaper on Monday, May 25, causing a huge political and institutional shock over suspicions that the officer had been removed from his post. for refusing to inform the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, of the investigation into the manifestation of 8-M, its incidence on the spread of the coronavirus and the responsibility of the Government for having led it and having encouraged all citizens to participate in she despite the epidemic. The Ministry was forced to give (brief) explanations on the same Monday, and in the following days Marlaska himself had to respond three times to questions from journalists about the dismissal. The answer was always the same: Pérez de los Cobos' departure is ordinary, responding to a reconfiguration of equipment and the Ministry's desire to have more trustworthy people, and it has nothing to do with the investigation into 8-M. This Monday the official reason for the dismissal was known: "Loss of confidence for not reporting the development of investigations and actions by the Civil Guard." Confirmed suspicions, the minister's lies exposed. This is how he formulated them last week in theCouncil of Ministers , the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.

1. Council of Ministers: "It is a natural process of substitution, there is no other reason"

Grande-Marlaska appeared on Tuesday the 26th in the Council of Ministers to announce a salary increase for members of the Security Forces. The matter, however, was the dismissal of Pérez de los Cobos. His first response was that it was something ordinary : "Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos has been dismissed, exclusively within what is the natural process of replacing the framework of the people who form, so to speak, the element of trust of any politician in charge. "

The loss of confidence is, in effect, the official reason for the resignation signed by the director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez , but the minister denied in his next response the other part, referring to the demand that had been made of Pérez de los Cobos to report judicial investigations: "It is a natural process of substitution based on trust. There is no other question, no other reason or objective, that substitution, that cessation. I repeat, it is a process of updating, a normal process of substitution of the attached teams, as various modifications have been made within the teams in recent times ".

2. Congress: "Free appointment, gentlemen!"

On Wednesday the 27th, Grande-Marlaska once again faced questions about the dismissal of Pérez de los Cobos, this time in the control session of the Government in the Congress of Deputies . The minister had an impact on the same explanation, denying any link with the investigation into the 8-M demonstration: "As mentioned, we are in a plan to remodel the team from the Ministry of the Interior; that the people who work with me, director of the Civil Guard, Secretary of State, are forming their teams. " Later, he proclaimed that he had simply proceeded to replace Pérez de los Cobos because he could do it: "Free appointment, gentlemen! When you speak of free appointment when you are there, that is effectiveness, it is efficiency; when there is the Socialist Party or United We Can , we have no right to free appointment. "

3. Senate: "Neither I nor anyone from the Ministry has interested neither the report nor the content of the report"

Two days later, in an appearance in the Senate , Grande-Marlaska returned to face the questions of the parliamentarians about a scandal that had already claimed more pieces in the form of dismissal or resignation of other high positions of the Civil Guard and that affected already seriously to the credibility of the Government and its relationship with the Security Forces. To questions from PP senator Fernando Martínez Maíllo , he replied, referring for the first time to the report on 8-M: "Neither I nor anyone from the Ministry or the General Directorate of the Civil Guard has interested or interested Mr. Pérez de los Cobos nor the report or knowledge of the content of the report to which you have asked me the question. If this is already clear I will repeat it. Neither this minister nor anyone from the Ministry or anyone from the General Directorate of the Civil Guard, obviously from the Ministry of the Interior No one has asked Colonel Pérez de los Cobos for the report or access to the content of the report to which you have referred. "

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Know more

  • Civil Guard
  • Senate
  • Fernando Grande-Marlaska
  • Congress of Deputies
  • Madrid
  • PP
  • Fernando Martínez Maíllo
  • United We Can
  • Coronavirus
  • State of alarm

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