‘Catalangate’: The Government offers an internal investigation in the CNI; the Government sees it as “insufficient”

The Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanos, has promised to activate an internal investigation in the CNI to clarify the case of espionage to more than 60 independence leaders. This has been one of the commitments that the right hand of Pedro Sánchez has transferred to the ‘consellera’ of the Presidency and right hand of Pere Aragonès, Laura Vilagra. Also the reactivation of the official secrets commission in Congress, so that spokespersons of all the political parties with representation in Congress can access the conclusions of said internal report on the ‘Catalangate‘. And the declassification of confidential information to provide it to the courts. Qualified measures of “insufficient” on the part of the Catalan Executive and that they do not repair the confidence between the partners of the investiture. “We do not have the answers that we hoped for”, declared Vilagrà after the meeting.

The meeting began around 10:45 a.m. on Sunday, lasted a little over two hours and took place in the office of the ‘minister’ of the Presidency, around a table long enough to maintain a prudent distance from the to covid and for what CKD stage the coldness of the relations that it intends to impose with the PSOE. Bolaños has expressed the “absolute commitment [del Gobierno] to clarify the facts”, words that have not satisfied his interlocutor, who considers that the explanations given this Sunday have been “vague, vague and with uncertain results”.

Who is behind this massive espionage? Who ordered it and why? Was the Executive aware of Pedro Sanchez of all of it? What happened to all the information obtained through espionage? Will there be resignations? These are some of the unknowns that the ‘consellera’ Vilagrà has tried to resolve from her government counterpart to try to lower the soufflé of a new political crisis that threatens to blow up the stability of the coalition in Congress. The first litmus test of that battered parliamentary relationship will take place this week, with the vote on the royal decree with the shock plan against the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. “The Government knows that our reaction is not a bluff, this visit does not normalize relations or guarantee them parliamentary support,” warned the Republican ‘consellera’.

“It can’t be that there are so many questions on the table, […] We do not doubt that the Government knows it”, Vilagrà asserted. The Republicans seek sufficiently explicit explanations that they can sell independence and resignations of some kind -despite the fact that they have not specified which ones- to show the depth of the crisis opened by espionage via Pegasus Espionage known in cases such as the current ‘conseller’ of Empresa i Treball, Roger Torrentor the ERC leader in Barcelona City Council, Ernest Maragallsince mid-2020.

The socialists do not want to give an image of an opaque State with a low democratic quality, while at the same time they say they are tied in order to give explanations for the confidentiality that legally must guide the actions of the CNI. There Bolaños has offered to declassify confidential information and provide it to the justice system with the aim of clarifying the facts. “We have a clear conscience and nothing to hide,” he declared.

In parallel to the political negotiations between both Executives, the Ombudsman has advanced that he will open an investigation into the case, as reported this Sunday from the institution. The office run by the former socialist minister Angel Gabilondo “is analyzing the information on a possible inappropriate use of Pegasus software tools that may have put the exercise of fundamental rights at risk, in particular those related to the right to privacy”, as explained from the same. This route does not like in the Government, because they consider that its results are “uncertain”.

One route that the PSOE was studying and that after this Sunday’s meeting it intends to reactivate is that of the official secrets commission congressional. With the intention that the director of the CNI, Peace Stephenappear in it once the “internal control” investigation is finished and share its conclusions there.

The secrets commission is a body in charge of monitoring the intelligence service and its reserved expenses and that is currently blocked in its composition by the crossed veto between parties. And the Socialists value lowering the three-fifths majority required to elect members and thus circumvent the PP’s veto. How does the Government plan to circumvent these crossed vetoes? The Minister of the Presidency has not explained it, who has pressured the formations to facilitate their constitution. “The important thing is not how it is going to be done, but rather that it be done as soon as possible”, he stated.

However, this route has so far not satisfied the claims of the independence movement, insofar as representatives of the parties can go to the secret commission to demand information but are then prohibited from disclosing it. Which would make it difficult for the partners of the Government, especially ERC, to later transmit credible or well-founded explanations to their bases of everything that involves the espionage of more than 60 leaders and personalities of the ‘procés’. “We need clarity and assumption of responsibilities. We expect resignations,” Vilagrà insisted, without specifying who.