Tensions are rising among Spanish police forces and politicians regarding the role of the country's different state or regional policing agencies in the lead up to last week's terror attacks in Catalonia, and over the political effects of intelligence failures.

One narrative blames the Catalan independence movement for those failures, while the other interprets events of the past few days as proof the regional Catalan police and government have already behaved as if they were an independent state.

On Tuesday, two Spanish police trade unions denounced those cooperation failures, both before the attacks and during the investigation afterwards.

The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) and Unified Police Union (SUP) issued a joint statement accusing the Catalan regional police, the Mossos, of "excluding and isolating" them: "during the investigation and management of the attack in Barcelona last Thursday".

The "weakness of the political institutions and leaders" in Spain, they allege, has meant the role of the National Police and Civil Guard in the fight against terrorism in Catalonia has been "intentionally marginalised" with the "sole aim" of "projecting the image of a 'self-sufficient' Catalan state abroad".

Also on Tuesday, the Catalan regional parliament announced that it would award the Mossos, as well as local police in Barcelona and Cambrils, its gold Medal of Honour for their hard work in handling the response, manhunt and investigation.

The role of the Civil Guard and National Police was not mentioned in the Catalan announcement.

Four groups of police operate across Spain—the Civil Guard, National Police, regional police (in some regions) and local officers in towns and cities—and Catalonia and the Basque Country have the most independent regional forces.

The two Spanish unions say the Catalan attitude led to public safety risks, and point to one specific—and crucial—incident the day before the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils: an explosion at a house in the town of Alcanar, 170 km south-west of the Catalan capital.

The 12-man jihadi terror cell had managed to accumulate more than 100 gas bottles at the location and was preparing a major attack with explosive materials.

The Civil Guard and National Police say the Catalan police prevented Civil Guard bomb disposal officers from investigating the event or offering advice.

"…Once again, the flagrant violation of cooperation agreements, as well as the deficient working of communication mechanisms between police and security forces, is plain for all to see", said the statement, adding that state-level police forces were "ignored on this occasion to the detriment of public safety".

On Monday, Catalan First Minister Carles Puigdemont again pressed for including the Catalan police force, the Mossos, in Europol, a measure the central government agreed to at a meeting in July.

Mr. Puigdemont said he was "convinced that when the Mossos are full members of Europol, there will be an increase in security in the country [Catalonia]".

El Confidencial Digital, citing anti-terror sources, described a report that accuses Catalan police of withholding information from state intelligence services, allegedly in response to the refusal of German, French and Israeli intelligence services to deal with Barcelona directly.