The president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has once again come out in defense of Fernando Grande-Marlaska, whom he places, together with the late Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, as the “best Minister of the Interior” of the democratic period in Spain. In a close tone, the PSOE candidate for re-election has gone as far as to claim that the head of Interior “is my left or right little eye.”
These remarks were made during an interview on the program 'El perro andaluz' on 'RTVE', collected by Europa Press, where Sánchez was asked about Marlaska’s role and about the demands for resignation after the police charges recorded during the general strike of November 11.
The head of the Executive has stressed that the Government respects the right to strike, which he has described as “constitutional,” but he has also underlined the obligation to guarantee public safety. “Sometimes it is difficult to reconcile,” he has admitted, while also pointing out that Marlaska has opened an investigation into the police charges and that, as he has stated, no such specific order was issued from the Ministry.
In this regard, Sánchez has rejected that the State Security Forces and Corps act differently in the face of “far-right demonstrations,” and he has stepped up to defend the professionalism of the Police, insisting that their conduct is governed by strictly professional criteria.
For the president, the existence of “inappropriate or disproportionate behaviors” in specific interventions does not “in any way” undermine the “good performance of our State Security Forces and Corps,” which, as he has emphasized, “pull out all the stops in very complicated circumstances.”
Closed defense against the calls for resignation
Amid the controversy over the charges of November 11 and the repeated demands for a dismissal, Sánchez has reiterated his support for Grande-Marlaska, whom he has once again referred to as his “left or right little eye.” He has claimed him as the best Interior Minister of democracy alongside Rubalcaba and has stressed that both are “light years” away from the former PP minister Jorge Fernández Díaz.
Sánchez has described Marlaska as a "decent type, dedicated to his work and a person who tries to do things the right way" in charge of a department "always complex" like the Interior Ministry. In addition, he has used irony when referring to the "condemnations" that the minister has accumulated in Parliament, stripping them of drama. "I tell you (to your government) that here the one who gets the most condemnations earns points," he has said with jokes, as a show of his political support for the minister.