Roquetas de Mar has nearly 100,000 residents, and its population grows during part of the year as tourists arrive. On 19 October 2026, the Audiencia Nacional annulled the provision creating a planned National Police station there, finding the decision arbitrary because the administrative file lacked a specific justification.
The court partially upheld an appeal by the Unión de Oficiales Guardia Civil (UO), an association of Civil Guard officers, against Interior Ministry Order INT/859/2023 of 21 July. The ruling annulled only section 92 of Annex II, which established the Roquetas station, under Article 47.2 of Law 39/2015; it did not invalidate the entire order. The judges cited the lack of any prior report or study establishing local circumstances, including demographic or security factors, to support the decision. The court rejected the UO’s remaining claims, and the judgment may be appealed to Spain’s Supreme Court.
The station was intended to take over the Guardia Civil’s functions in the municipality. Its creation would have meant the forced departure of about 180 officers and their families, with the officers’ departure reported as scheduled for December 2026. Following the ruling, the UO said it would seek to halt the Civil Guard’s departure until the judgment becomes final. The decision addresses the lack of documented justification for the proposed deployment, rather than ruling that the National Police could never operate in Roquetas.
The ruling leaves the local security plan in limbo. The Guardia Civil has served in Roquetas for more than a century, and associations including the AUGC (Asociación Unificada de Guardias Civiles) had objected that the unit was to be dismantled without a written explanation. The AUGC called on Mayor Gabriel Amat to cancel the agreement associated with the planned station.
Mayor Gabriel Amat of the PP argues that Roquetas needs more resources and supports having both the Guardia Civil and the National Police in the town. He has pointed to a protocol signed under Mariano Rajoy’s government that envisaged new Guardia Civil facilities and a larger staff. Amat says the project stalled after Pedro Sánchez became prime minister and was never carried out before Grande-Marlaska decided on the force’s departure.
Amat said he felt like removing the city’s Gold Shield awarded to Marlaska because, in his view, the minister was not attending to Roquetas. The mayor has also criticised the central government for not explaining how state security forces would be deployed in the municipality.
Calls for more policing resources have also featured elsewhere in Spain: a separate report on El Hierro covered the Canary Islands government’s request for extra police and Civil Guard officers. It is a separate case from the dispute over Roquetas’s security arrangements.
Carmen Crespo, who leads the PP candidacy in Almería, has also backed a shared Guardia Civil and National Police presence in Roquetas. She said the arrangement already operates in other Spanish municipalities with smaller populations.
The Sindicato Unificado de Policía (SUP) has said the judgment does not rule out a future National Police deployment if the Interior Ministry corrects the lack of specific justification in the file. The final position remains subject to any Supreme Court appeal and subsequent administrative action.
