Pedro Sánchez says that police officers and civil guards “risk their lives” but still refuses to recognize them as a high-risk profession

He said this one day after snubbing the Civil Guard at the funeral of two of its agents, which no member of the government attended.

Four members of the government at the Goya Awards: none at the funeral of the Civil Guards
The Civil Guard is once again paying with lives for the decisions of Pedro Sánchez's government

At a PSOE rally in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz), Sánchez expressed "our sorrow, our affection, our solidarity to the families of the deceased Civil Guards". A sorrow that no member of the government wanted to convey personally to the families of the officers, because yesterday, after four members of the government attended the Goya Awards ceremony, not one attended the funeral for the two Civil Guard officers who died in Huelva on Friday when two vessels from the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard collided.

Sánchez has also expressed "our deep appreciation to the State Security Forces and Corps, who risk their lives to guarantee the safety and well-being of citizens." These words sound very good, but they contrast sharply with the actions of his government and his party within the institutions. Let us recall, without going any further, the statements of the socialist senator Alfonso García Rodríguez, a member of the PSC (the Catalan federation of the PSOE) in November 2025, stating regarding the National Police and the Civil Guard: "if they really want to have this social recognition and this social risk supplement, they must deserve it and earn it at every moment, in every action and in an appropriate manner, not because of my rank, excuse my expression." A demand that he does not make of the Catalan Police, whose officers are indeed recognized by the government as a high-risk profession.

The Sánchez government has for years denied national police officers and civil guards the status of a high-risk profession, a status it does recognize for artists (specifically citing singers, dancers, and trapeze artists) and local and regional police officers. In April 2024, the Senate approved a motion to demand this recognition from the government, at the initiative of the People's Party and with the opposition of the PSOE and its far-left partners, but Sánchez ignored this request, which, more than two years later, remains unimplemented.

As I already explained here, this rejection is partly due to ideological motivations, since the National Police and the Civil Guard are highly respected institutions in Spain, but they are hated by the far-left partners of the government, especially by EH Bildu (a party that has never condemned the 853 ETA murders, including the murders of 149 National Police officers and 209 Civil Guard officers) and the separatist parties, who have been doing everything possible to expel the National Police and the Civil Guard from several Spanish regions.

On the other hand, there are also economic motivations: this recognition would force the government to allow these officers to retire at 59 with full pay. Sánchez seems to have money for all kinds of budget items when it comes to pleasing his separatist allies, but when it comes to doing justice for those who watch over our security, Sánchez becomes stingy.

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Photo: PSOE.