One of the 18 personalities of the procés spied on by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) was because of the knowledge he had of the talks that were underway in Barcelona in the face of the possibility that Republican Left of Catalonia (the candidacy of Ernest Maragall was the most voted list) will win the mayor’s office, according to the documentation that the CNI provided to the Commission of Official Secrets of Congress on May 5, according to La Vanguardia.
The Spanish secret services wanted to know the status of negotiations in Barcelona, and they knew that a certain puncture could give them relevant information. Specifically, the telephone of a person who was interceding for the formation of a coalition government between ERC and Barcelona En Comúthe formation of Ada Colau, who tied in the municipal elections of May 26, 2019 to 10 mayors. These conversations did not bear fruit and finally the plenary session proclaimed Colau mayor thanks to the votes of the PSC and the abstention of two mayors from the candidacy of former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
Speaking to Catalunya Ràdio, Ernest Maragall has confirmed that there was a “state operation” to prevent him from assuming the mayor’s office: “Perhaps they were afraid of an April 14”, he has said, and has assured that Valls was “one more toy” in the framework of an “operation of State” that sought to prevent the ERC from regaining the mayor’s office in Barcelona. “We are in a intervened democracy”, The Republican leader has sentenced, deploring that from state institutions the possibility that ERC governs is seen as a “risk”.
In his opinion, the information about the espionage of the CNI to that alleged intermediary, whose identity he has not wanted to reveal, “seriously affects the legitimacy and democratic validation” of what happened after the municipal elections of 2019. In this sense, he has asked the mayor and his first deputy mayor, the socialist Jaume Collboni, to “be worthy of their responsibilities”, although he has not clarified what kind of reaction waiting.
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After the New Yorker published the investigation of Citizen Labswhich pointed out that up to 60 pro-independence officials had been spied on with the ‘software’ Pegasusthe then director of the CNI, Peace Stephenclarified that these data were erroneous and it is only 18 people and in all cases it was done with the previous request to the judge of the supreme court competent to endorse it.
The people that the secret services admit to having spied on are Pere Aragones, then vice president of the Generalitat and national coordinator of ERC; the secretary of Together for Catalonia, jordi sanchezits vice president and leader in Barcelona, Elsa Artadiand the deputy of this formation Albert Batett; Carlos Riveradeputy of the CUP; Elisenda Paluzie, president of the ANC; the vice president of Òmnium, Marcel Mauriand the board member Jordi Bosch de Borja; Carles Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boyeand three people very close to the former president such as Joan Matamalathe director of the technical structure of the House of the Republic in Waterloo, Sergio Miqueland the person responsible for said structure, Josep Lluis Alay; the businessman and former minister of ERC Xavier Vendrell; the president of the PDECat, David Bonvehiand the deputy general secretary (and mayor of Mollerussa) Marc Solosona; and tech entrepreneurs Jordi Baylina, Xavier Vives and Pau Escrich.