Isaac Padrós, a member of Junts in the Parliament of Catalonia, has filed a complaint against a National Police officer over how his family was treated at the force’s station in La Jonquera, Girona. The incident took place during the renewal of his daughter’s Spanish national identity document, known as a DNI. Padrós alleges that he and his family faced hostile and discriminatory treatment.
The complaint was submitted to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in Girona and, information from EFE, alleges possible violations of civic rights and discriminatory denial of public services, along with abuse affecting moral integrity by a public official. It also alleges falsification of official documents, with coercion raised as an alternative. These are claims in the complaint, not findings of criminal liability.
Padrós says his family spoke in Catalan throughout the appointment and that officers asked them to switch to Spanish. After they declined, officers allegedly demanded their documents without legal justification and took Padrós’s ID by force. The complaint also alleges that officers later drew up a false report in retaliation after he said he intended to lodge a formal grievance.
The complaint cites Padrós’s visual impairment, which he says makes it difficult to produce identification quickly or read instructions, and alleges that officers failed to account for it. A separate dispute concerns the fee for his daughter’s DNI. The standard fee is generally €12, while members of a legally recognised large family are exempt if they present valid proof of that status. Whether the exemption applied depends on the family’s eligibility and the documentation provided at the appointment.
The dispute sits within a broader legal structure for the use of Catalan and Spanish in public administration. Catalonia’s Law 1/1998 on Language Policy and Decree 107/1987 set out language rules for Catalan public bodies. The National Police is a force of Spain’s central government, so its legal obligations must be distinguished from those governing the Mossos d’Esquadra or local police. Legal commentary published by Segre says the structure requires Catalan’s institutional use to be reconciled with individuals’ right to choose either official language; it does not exclude Spanish.
Figures reported by advocacy organisation Platforma per la Llengua show the scale of the complaints it records: 176 reports of linguistic discrimination in public administration in 2025, including 23 attributed to Spain’s police forces. For 2007-2025, the organisation said security forces accounted for 24.3% of its documented cases, behind public healthcare at 34.4%. These figures describe reported incidents, not adjudicated violations. The organisation has also cited routine encounters such as DNI and passport renewals as settings where disputes over language can arise.
The complaint puts the alleged conduct before prosecutors, but filing it does not establish that an offence occurred. The allegations concern what happened at the La Jonquera station, while Padrós’s visual impairment raises an accessibility issue. The complaint also raises questions about the evidence required for a fee exemption and how language rights apply in dealings with a national police force.
