Military law and the Guardia Civil

There is continuing controversy in Spain over the application of military law to the Guardia Civil. According to Juan Fernandez, provincial head of the Unified Association of the Civil Guard, as reported here:

Fernandez said that "we are still trying being treated as if we belonged to the armed forces and we apply military law."

According to Fernandez, the "remilitarization" of the Civil Guard is designed to halt the advance of professional associations in the military. In fact, AUGC has recently gone further, and has submitted an application for registration as a trade union with the Ministry of Labour. And their leaders are willing to fight in court, at both the Constitutional and European level.

Juan Fernandez notes that changes in the Military Penal Code include very ambiguous aspects to justify its application, such as "safeguarding the discipline" or "service needs".

Fernandez believes that the "revival" of cases by the military court is due, among other things, to the need to justify its own existence, and notes that there are currently insufficient cases per province to maintain a body of this kind. He explains that there are currently no offenses that justify the application of the Military Penal Code (MPC) to civil guards, such as "treason" and "sedition". [Rough Google translation]