The MEP Irene Montero demands the removal of the increase in Mossos personnel from the text agreed upon by PSOE and Junts and calls for the closure of the Immigration Detention Centres. Her four MPs can block the initiative in Congress.
The Podemos MEP Irene Montero set out her party's conditions on Monday to support the transfer of immigration powers to Catalonia. In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, Montero insisted that the text agreed by PSOE and Junts eliminate the increase in the Mossos d'Esquadra workforce and called for the closure of the Immigration Detention Centres (CIE) and an end to racial profiling raids.
The purple leader described the underlying vision in the proposal as “racist” and summarised her stance with a strong statement:
“Racism cannot be delegated, and racism cannot be transferred.”
This is not the first time Podemos has linked its opposition to the role of the Mossos. In July 2025, the party's secretary general, Ione Belarra, warned that the transfer would allow regional agents to carry out “racist raids” and demand documentation from migrants based on their skin colour.
Those statements provoked an angry response from Junts. The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont accused Podemos of maintaining a discourse of “Spanish supremacism” and “xenophobia”, while the party's secretary general, Jordi Turull, reproached Belarra for her criticisms of the immigration policy agreed with the Government.
The origin of the dispute is the organic law proposal registered by PSOE and Junts in the Congress to delegate immigration powers to the Generalitat. The text provides for Catalonia to manage the returns of foreigners with entry bans and for the Mossos to participate in border control functions alongside the National Police and the Guardia Civil.
Podemos has the capacity to block the initiative during its parliamentary processing, as its four MPs can be decisive for the proposal to move forward. The party now claims it is willing to support the transfer but demands modifications to the content to unlink it from police reinforcement and orient it towards social services and the guarantee of immigrants' rights.
More than a year after Belarra's initial warnings, Podemos maintains the same line of opposition and again positions the increase in the Mossos as one of the main obstacles for the transfer of powers to receive their votes.
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