Pamplona (EFE).- The Foral Community and the central government have staged the agreement for the transfer of the powers of Traffic and Road Safety, a process that will start on July 1 and will last for several years and in which the Foral Police will assume greater prominence with new powers, until now exercised together with the Civil Guard.
It was held in a solemn act, presided over by the president of Navarra, María Chivite, with the presence of the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy, Alfredo González, and the main authorities of the Foral Community, which took place in the throne room of the Navarre Palace.
Shortly before, the Transfer Board had formally agreed to the transfer, on a “great day for Navarra”, the president acknowledged after recalling that it is a power that the Franco dictatorship “took” from the Autonomous Community six decades ago, when it was already exercising it exclusively and which led to the creation in 1928 of the Provincial Police.
Chivite recalled that the governments of Navarra of all political persuasions have claimed this competence, endorsed in 2018 by the Supreme Court, and that it was finally achieved “because there has been a political and institutional commitment, a commitment to the Lorafna and to the Constitution”, and that in the Navarrese part of the Transfer Board has aroused “unanimity”.
“It is not done against anyone”
Exposed the political and institutional support, Chivite has not ignored the controversy over the consequences that this “historic step” will have for the Civil Guard, who until now exercised part of these powers exclusively, which “is not done backwards to anyone or against anyone, but from the law and with the citizenry”.
It has been a step taken “from the dialogue, respect, loyalty and commitment of this Government in the advancement of our powers, with an inclusive and integrating spirit”, said Chivite after thanking the representatives of the Civil Guard present at the act their work and ensure the “capacity” of the Provincial Police and the Government of Navarra for the replacement.
“Highly demanded” competition
Along the same lines, the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy, Alfredo González, has declared that this is “a long-requested transfer” by the successive governments of Navarra of different signs and to which “all groups in Parliament de Navarra at some point have voted in favour”.
With the transfer, Navarra is equal in this competence to that of the autonomous communities (Basque Country and Catalonia) that have their own police forces, although it has warned that the agreement “adheres solely and exclusively to traffic powers” (the Civil Guard will continue to exercise the ones it already has) and raises the possibility that the affected Benemérita agents can take the “catwalk” that will be enabled to enter the Provincial Police or, if they reject it, stay in Navarra in other units of the body.
Also González, after warning that both bodies will work in a coordinated manner in this transition, has valued the “dialogue and commitment of the Government of Spain with the self-government of Navarra” that is behind this agreement, a “constant work and without fuss” that has revealed to both as “loyal” interlocutors and has managed to add the third transfer to Navarra in this legislature (after prison health and the management of the Minimum Vital Income).
Act without presidents prior to Uxue Barkos
The president of Navarra, María Chivite, has thanked the work to achieve the Traffic competition that the governments that have preceded her have carried out, but despite this involvement, none of the previous presidents have attended Uxue Barkos.
The current spokeswoman for Geroa Bai has been the only former president who has attended an act to which all the former heads of the Executive were invited. Even so, Chivite has remembered them: “Thanks to the previous presidents and presidents for pushing, because pushing is how you progress.”
The commanders of all the police forces that act in Navarra, the Foral Police, the National Police and the Civil Guard, as well as the Pamplona Municipal Police, were present at the event. All of them have applauded the interventions of both the Secretary of State and the regional president.
As for political representation, no group from the parliamentary arc wanted to miss the act and from Navarra Suma to Izquierda-Ezkerra. Even so, neither representatives of the PP nor of Ciudadanos have been present after having been opposed to the assumption of the competition since it was signed, so the only representation of the coalition has been that of UPN.
A historic competition
The specialist in Navarra Law, Miguel Izu, has carried out a historical contextualization of the act. During his speech, he recalled that the institutions of the Kingdom of Navarre, prior to its definitive disappearance in 1836, fully exercised functions regarding the construction and maintenance of what were then called “royal roads” and traffic regulation. of people and vehicles. For the exercise of these powers, the Provincial Council created, in 1928, the Highway Police Corps, which in 1964 would change its name to the Provincial Police of Navarra, which is still maintained today.
Until 1959, powers in relation to traffic on the highways of Navarre were exercised by the Provincial Council through its Roads Directorate and the Highway Police Corps. That year, a new law stated that the surveillance and discipline of traffic and the sanction of infractions corresponded to the Minister of the Interior and the Civil Governors. Navarra tried to modify it through conversations with the central government, and in 1962 agreed to suspend “for the moment the exercise of their rights” in this matter, although always “with the reservation of recovering them.”
Since 1982, all the institutions of Navarra and all its political forces have demanded the recovery of the faculties taken away in this matter of historical competence. Thus, the expansion of the functions of the Foral Police to become a comprehensive police force, including exclusive functions on traffic, has been contemplated as an objective of the programs presented at the inauguration of the successive presidents of Navarra between 1991 and 2019. .