The mayor of Collado Villalba, Mariola Vargas (PP), included criticisms of Pedro Sánchez, ETA, and Bildu in the tribute to the Virgin of Pilar. Several officers from the barracks believe it was neither the place nor the time.
The celebration of the Virgin of Pilar in Collado Villalba has caused discontent among members of the Civil Guard. The town's mayor, the popular Mariola Vargas, took advantage of her speech during the solemn events on Monday in the central Plaza de los Belgas to attack the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and to introduce references to Bildu, the terrorist group ETA, and the situation in Ceuta, according to cadenaser.com.
Officers from the Collado Villalba barracks, which also serves the residents of the neighbouring town of Alpedrete, attended an official event that combined solemn and liturgical tributes. Several present officers noted that, regardless of whether they agreed with the mayor's words, "it was neither the time nor the place" for such expressions.
We would have liked to talk about what we really contribute to the municipality on our patron's day
The civil guards lamented that political debate overshadowed a significant date for the corps and that the tribute and recognition of the staff's work were relegated to the background.
Vargas's speech contrasted with that of the mayor of Alpedrete, the also popular Juan Rodríguez, which was strictly institutional in tone. Some officers stationed at the barracks described that intervention as "the example of what not to do at an institutional event." A uniformed officer with nearly two decades of service in Villalba described the mayor's intervention as "a PP rally," due to the continuous mentions of Pedro Sánchez, Ceuta, ETA, and Bildu.
The discontent is based on the contrast between the content of the speech and the daily needs of the barracks. The officers demand that issues such as the burden of maintaining public safety in a locality with high crime rates, the fight against drug trafficking, and the volume of responsibilities they assume be addressed.
We fight against ETA: we lost a colleague shot dead in our own municipality and another was left injured for life
At this point, the civil guards recall the attack in 2002 in which Antonio Molina was killed and his colleague Juan Aguilar was injured. "October 12 is a day to unite Spaniards and pay a sincere tribute to the Civil Guard, not to instrumentalise the corps or use an institutional position to engage in partisan politics," adds an officer who requests anonymity.
The events for the patron of the Civil Guard were held this Monday in the Plaza de los Belgas in Collado Villalba, with the presence of officers from the barracks serving both the municipality and Alpedrete.
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