Justice Civil Guard (Jucil), the association of agents that has suffered a major setback in the elections held between Tuesday and Wednesday to elect the 16 representatives of the agents’ representative body. Strongly opposed to the Government since it emerged under the protection of the Jusapol platform that has encouraged mobilizations since 2017 to demand equal pay with the Mossos d’Esquadra, Jucil has now obtained three members compared to the six it achieved in the 2021 elections.
On the scale of guards and corporals, the largest, the setback has been striking, since it has gone from obtaining 14,251 ballots four years ago to having to settle for 6,838 votes, less than half. After knowing the results, Jucil issued a press release in which it stated that “it will continue fighting to achieve salary equality with the regional police as a main priority”, but without analyzing the poor results obtained.
Jucil’s electoral failure occurs months after an internal war broke out between some of its leaders with one between the current leadership of the association, headed by its general secretary, Ernesto Vilariño, and which is still being resolved in court. Their loss of support has also meant that they are no longer the majority organization among agents. The Unified Association of the Civil Guard (AUGC), which had been the most voted until the emergence of Jucil, is thus once again the most representative by recovering one member and reaching the figure of five, all of them on the scale of guards and corporals.
In addition to the five members of the AUGC and the three of Jucil, the Union of Officers (2), the Association of the Scale of Non-Commissioned Officers (also with two), the Professional Association of Corporals of the Civil Guard (with another two and which obtained one more than in the previous elections), the Spanish Association of Civil Guards and Independents of the Civil Guard, with one representative each, have obtained representation. Two other associations have been left out.
The results of the elections to the Civil Guard Council, in which 85,542 voters were called to the polls, also reflect a growing disinterest of the agents in this body, to which the Ministry of the Interior consults, without binding force, on any decision that affects the working conditions of the civil guards. Thus, participation has stood at 37%, more than nine points less than four years ago – when it rose to 46.7% – and nearly four points below the elections eight years ago, according to data provided by the Ministry of the Interior.
Abstention has been more pronounced at the level of guards and corporals, where only 25,981 of the 73,708 voters, 35.25%, have exercised the right to vote. On the other hand, on the non-commissioned officer scale, participation has exceeded 50% and has approached this last percentage without reaching it on the two officer scales.
With these results, Jucil follows the path of Police Justice (Jupol, the National Police union that also emerged under the protection of Jusapol). This also went from sweeping the first elections with eight councilors to losing half in the following elections, which were held in June 2023. Then, like Jucil now, the union had been involved in an internal crisis due to alleged economic scandals that in its case caused, by the alleged charge to the organization’s accounts of allegedly unjustified expenses for clothing, medicines and other personal purchases.
