Pedro Sánchez promises to “give accounts” for alleged espionage to Catalan independentistas


The president of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sanchezintervened this Wednesday for the first time in the matter of the alleged espionage of Catalan independentistas, on whose support their survival depends, promising them “to render accounts” for it.

“We are going to render accounts,” said the socialist Sánchez in the Congressruling on the case for the first time, since the publication of a report by a Canadian organization stating that the phones of more than 60 people from the pro-independence orbit with the Israeli program were tapped and spied on, between 2017 and 2020 pegasus.

“We are talking about a serious issue that requires serious answers,” he admitted, recalling that his government already announced on Sunday the opening of an internal investigation into the National Intelligence Center (CNI), another by the Ombudsman, and parliamentary control of the intelligence services.

Sánchez, whose government has so far not acknowledged that the espionage took place, insisted that in any case the CNI acted “scrupulously adhering to the law.”

Sanchez postpones trip

whereas his government depends in particular on the parliamentary support of the separatist ERC party (Republican Left of Catalonia), Sánchez asked him to rebuild “trust” and not deny him his votes.

The government fears that ERC will position itself on Thursday against a plan of direct aid for 6,000 million euros (6,580 million dollars) for households and companies to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus. war in ukrainein force since April 1 but that must receive the green light from Congress so as not to become a dead letter.

In this context of high political tension, Sánchez postponed a trip that he had planned to make this Thursday and Friday to moldova Y Polandaccording to a source from the executive.

Citing sources close to the CNI, the newspaper The country affirmed on Tuesday that the intelligence services did spy on the Catalan separatists but with judicial permission, and selectively, not massively.

The tool used was pegasuswhich allows, once installed on a cell phone, access to messages, data, and activate the device remotely to record images or sound.

In another gesture aimed at appeasing the independentistas, the socialist president of the Congress of Deputies authorized on Tuesday a modification of the election of the future members of the parliamentary committee of “official secrets”, where the action of the CNI in this case will be analyzed, and which will allow the inclusion in it of ERC and the Basque independentistas of EH Bildu.

ERC calls for resignation of minister

Despite all the gestures of the government, the anger of the independentistas has not diminished and this Wednesday ERC demanded the resignation of the Defense Minister, Margaret Oakson whom the CNI depends.

Robles is “politically” incapacitated to continue in her position in the face of “what is the worst espionage scandal in recent decades,” the Catalan president said Wednesday before the regional parliament, Pere Aragonesefrom CKD.

Minister Robles herself had stirred up the independence supporters moments before, when speaking before Congress she seemed to justify espionage: “What does a State and a government have to do when someone violates the Constitution, when someone declares independence, when someone cuts off the roads public?”

Catalonia has been for years the scene of a political crisis between the independentistas, who control the executive and the regional parliamentand the central government.

Tensions reached their zenith in October 2017, when separatists staged an illegal referendum on self-determination and subsequently unilaterally and unsuccessfully declared independence for the region.

The tensions had been diluted after the resumption in 2020 of the dialogue between the independentistas and the Sánchez government, which last year pardoned nine convicted of the 2017 events.



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