The Ripoll City Council has hired one of the daughters of the town’s mayor, Sílvia Orriols, as an interim local police officer. Orriols herself announced it at the plenary session on Tuesday afternoon and made it clear that she has not appointed “anyone by hand” and that she has “absolutely refrained from participating in anything affecting the process.” “Just as I cannot benefit her with my position, I also cannot prevent her from fulfilling her dream,” she assured.
The position was called with an “urgent” character to guarantee the “proper provision of the service” given the “structural under-staffing of agents.” Orriols assured that her daughter was the one who obtained the highest score among the 24 people who registered.
Orriols defends her daughter: “Just as I cannot benefit her, I also cannot prevent her from fulfilling her dream”
The mayor assured that she would give explanations “to prevent anyone from buying the opposition’s fanciful narrative and questioning the institution’s prestige, my loyalty to the position, or my daughter’s merits.” According to Orriols, the local police officer position was called “urgently” to cover “the vacation period and the current lack of personnel.” In fact, the text of the call decree argues that the force is experiencing a “critical operational situation that directly affects the effectiveness and efficiency of the essential public citizen security service” and that it is an “unpostponable necessity to guarantee the proper provision of the service.”
The same document argues that the mayor holds the “superior command of the local police and the competence to direct security policy in the municipality.” At the same time, she is also attributed the “competence to issue” the resolution calling for positions.
According to the mayor’s explanations, 24 people registered in the selection process, although only 15 finally took the written test. At this point, the mayor stated that the written test “was drafted minutes before the exam by the area chief and the acting head of the local police force to avoid the slightest leak.” She also detailed that the candidates identified themselves with the digits of their ID and not with names and surnames “so that whoever corrected the test would not know the identity of the candidates.”
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The mayor holds the “superior command of the local police and the competence to direct security policy in the municipality”
The written test, Orriols noted, was only passed by 5 people and her daughter “obtained the best grade.” These 5 candidates had to undergo a personal interview conducted by the area chief and three local police commanders. Then, the mayor explained, an average was made between the written test and the personal interview and “only three candidates passed it.” Of these, Orriols concluded, her daughter “obtained the first position with more than two points above the second.”
Orriols wanted to make it clear that the process “has complied with the current regulations and protocols” and recalled that since 2007 political officeholders “cannot participate or be present in personnel selection processes.” In addition, the Catalan politician has lashed out at the criticism through her X account.
“If I wanted to plug my daughter in, I would put her in an office, not out on the street fighting criminals, drunks, and terrorists… But you are so clumsy and so determined to sink me that you don’t think,” Orriols published. The leader of the Popular Party in Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, has urged the mayor to be more careful “when you speak in general terms about the caste.” “How things change when they affect us and our families, right?” the popular leader concluded.
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