Barcelona’s Audiencia Provincial opened a trial against former Catalan health minister Alba Vergés and three senior officials from her pandemic team, including her successor, Josep Maria Argimon. The case centered on accusations that they deliberately postponed Covid-19 vaccinations for Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil officers while prioritizing the regional Mossos d'Esquadra and local police. Prosecutors alleged this amounted to unlawful discrimination and sought 12-year bans from public office for all four defendants.
The prosecution said that on March 24, 2021, health department leaders jointly decided to halt the vaccination program for national police and civil guards, despite prior agreements to begin immunizations on March 15. Evidence included an internal message from a member of Vergés’s cabinet instructing the vaccination coordinator to “stop Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional” vaccinations and stating there was no justification for the move. The decision left state security officers with much lower vaccination rates than the regional forces, most of whose members had already received their doses.
Vergés and her team argued that the vaccination schedule was coordinated with Spain’s health ministry and other regions, and that their decisions were based on medical criteria to prioritize the most vulnerable. The prosecution maintained that the Catalan officials knew their actions would leave national police and civil guards at greater risk: at that point, only 2.8% of Guardia Civil and 3.6% of Policía Nacional officers had been vaccinated, compared with 77% of Mossos and local police and nearly 69% of firefighters.
After an initial agreement on February 9, 2021, to prioritize “special function groups” for AstraZeneca vaccination, Catalonia began immunizing people aged 18 to 55. Plans called for vaccinating national police and civil guards between March 15 and 17, but the campaign was suspended on March 15 following reports of rare blood clots linked to AstraZeneca. A week later, the national health council approved the vaccine for people up to 65, including police. Prosecutors said Catalonia then shifted its focus to vaccinating those aged 60 to 65, further delaying shots for many state officers.
The proceedings unfolded amid tensions between Catalan authorities and Spain’s central government, including disputes over the treatment of national institutions in the region. At the time, the trial was expected to conclude by July 15. Similar disputes over the intersection of politics and public health have surfaced in other contexts, including when Catalan parties pressured national leaders on sensitive issues, as in the recent calls for changes in PSOE leadership to avoid a far-right government.
Spain’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign was coordinated nationally but implemented by regional health authorities. The AstraZeneca vaccine was subject to several pauses and age restrictions across Europe in spring 2021, complicating rollout plans. The Mossos d'Esquadra are Catalonia’s autonomous police force, while the Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil operate under the Spanish government as national forces. Disputes over their treatment have been a recurring source of political friction in Catalonia, especially since the 2017 independence referendum.
In a later development, Faro de Vigo reported on October 5, 2026, that Vergés and Argimon, along with other former senior leaders of Catalonia’s Health Department, had been acquitted over the delay in vaccinating police officers. The report, by J. G. Albalat, described the outcome of the judicial investigation but did not set out the court’s reasoning.
A separate report by El Nacional said Spain’s Supreme Court rejected a Generalitat appeal concerning Covid vaccination of Spanish police officers. Its headline characterized the decision as confirming that Catalonia’s Health Department had discriminated against Spanish police during the vaccination campaign. The dispute also featured contested accounts of the suspension: on May 4, 2023, El Nacional reported that Argimon distanced himself from the decision to suspend vaccinations for Guardia Civil and Spanish police personnel. Marc Ramentol, then the Health Department’s secretary-general, was also identified as an investigated official.
