The Government weighs declassifying espionage documents to try to appease ERC

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Seen from the outside, it is unmistakable. But the government itself also admits that it now suffers from “major political crisis“Since a legislature marked first by the pandemic and then by the war in Ukraine began. Its relationship with ERC, a key partner (although not the only one) of the legislature, and head of the Generalitat, is going through its worst moment, on the verge of collapse. rupture, due to the Pegasus case, and without it being clear in Moncloa how to redirect the dialogue with the Government and if the next steps planned —now, the most relevant, the meeting between Pedro Sánchez and Pere Aragonès, still without a date— will suffice to temper their indignation, which is why the government is studying the possibility that can be declassified the judicial authorizations granted to the National Intelligence Center (CNI) to be able to spy on today’s ‘president’ and 17 other independentists.

Aragonès demanded, in fact, that the secret about that endorsement of the Supreme Court be lifted from the intelligence services. It is “absolutely essential” to know “the reasons that lead to spying on a political official” because “in a democracy, the leaders of other parties are not spied on,” he assured Friday on Catalunya Ràdio, where he declared that trust with the Government ” it’s broken, it’s at zero”. United We Can and the rest of the sovereignist formations also demand that declassification. The Generalitat believes that Aragonès was watched while the PSOE negotiated the investiture of Sánchez with ERC.

The Executive admits that it is going through the “greatest crisis” with its partners, and that both parties need a way out. The formula is to make ERC see that it has acted with “total transparency”

“We need them to have a way out, and so do we, but we are not going to do anything that compromises the institutions of the State“, reason government sources consulted by this newspaper. The objective, then, is to “rebuild” the relationship with ERC, and the formula is for the Republicans “to be convinced that the Executive has acted with total transparency,” they point out, and in fact “a lot of information” was provided in the official secrets commission, last Thursday in Congress, but that mountain of papers that the director of the CNI showed, Peace Stephenit is not public.

The Moncloa, for that reason, weighs whether it is convenient to declassify all that documentation, as confirmed to this newspaper by top-level sources. “We have to see it. What we are never going to do is lift the reserve of documents that could affect national security,” they point out. The Official Secrets Act of 1968 (pre-constitutional, although reformed in 1978), allows files to be declassified by the body that classified them as reserved or secret. The declassification of a document can be partial or total.

The president’s schedule

The Executive has already canceled the veto of documents related to ‘Operation Kitchen’ in 2018 Y 2019, upon judicial request, and did so through the Council of Ministers. It would do the same now, they point out from the Government: the declassification would be articulated through cabinet meeting. In any case, “it will not be imminent”, in the Council of Ministers this Tuesday, but “later”. “First we have to finish the internal investigation at the CNI, see what we know and from there take decisions“, they respond in Moncloa.

“What we are never going to do is declassify documents that may affect national security,” government sources stress

The most immediate, then, will be the appointment of Sánchez and Aragonès, although there is no date yet. It will not be, in principle, at the beginning of this next week, and it may be “complicated” to marry agendas, excuse the Government. In addition to chairing the Council and attending the control session on Wednesdays, the president has planned and unavoidable trips for at least two: from May 22, to the economic forum in Davosand on 30 and 31, to the informal EU summit in Brussels. In addition, on Tuesday the 17th he receives the emir of Qatar. The idea of ​​Moncloa is that the meeting of the two presidents be “public“, and it has not been decided whether it will be in Madrid or Barcelona. Yes, it is wanted to be held soon, because “the sooner normality can be restored, the better”. Now, Aragonès already warned this Saturday, in an interview on ‘Ara’that the office of the two leaders, by itself, “doesn’t solve anything”, and that in order to advance in the dialogue, it is first necessary to “restore a minimum trust between the parties and restore the credibility of this process as well” and the PSOE has to “demonstrate that it is different from the PP”.

In the PSOE there are leaders who recognize themselves “worried” due to “all the noise generated and the decibels” of the conflict with ERC, who admit that it will be “complicated, without a doubt” to straighten out contact with the Government, but it is also believed that, sooner or later, differences will be redressed, because it is not convenient for any of the parties to break up the legislature. In the Executive they emphasize that they are being “very transparent”, that they are “seeking the truth and not hiding anything”. And they point out that they have even publicized, and made available to the Justice, the espionage with the Pegasus ‘software’ on Sánchez and the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, a step not taken by any other government in the world until now and that has supposed to point to the CNI. “It may be debatable, but of course it is consistent with what we have been doing. This issue has revealed that there is a worldwide problem with this Israeli program, and we are going to try to clarify everything, although it is very difficult“, justify government sources.

Robles “has his role”

CKD also demands heads. Specifically, Robles. The president is not going to grant it, they ratify from Moncloa, because “cannot be terminated at the request of the independentistas“, and with NATO summit in Madrid just around the corner, in less than two months (June 29 and 30). In addition, the head of Defense “has her role in the Government”, whipping United We Can and sovereignty, which allows Sánchez to cover with her the more moderate spectrum of her electorate. And in the cabinets, they point out from the president’s environment, “different profiles must be safeguarded.”

In the Executive they emphasize that the legislature “is not in danger” and that in the end ERC “has not been in the most important votes”

Y Peace Stephen? His fall is no longer as clear as at the beginning of this past week, when both the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, left his continuity up in the air. “Margarita defends the director of the CNI, and she wants to keep her, so we have to see,” they point out in the Executive. In other words, dismissing her would have the obvious contraindication that it would be obvious that her dismissal would take place without the consent of her political superior, the minister. In addition to the fact that today would not satisfy the wishes of ERC and the Government, who have aimed higher. Therefore, Sánchez finds himself between a rock and a hard place: with a clear demand from the independence movement to which he is not willing to give in.

The way out indicated by Moncloa is to “recompose the relationship with the ERC with dialogue and transparency“, making him see that his purpose of “searching for the truth” is real, that it is believed that the Government “has not ordered any listening” and that “it has not been a beneficiary of them”. Because in the Executive they continue to defend that Sánchez “never knew names and surnames who was being watched”. “If the director of the CNI told Robles, we don’t know, but what is clear is that this information never reached Sánchez”, they expose. In Defense, which has waged a pulse with Moncloa nothing Discreet due to the responsibility for the security breach in the socialist leader’s cell phone (and settled within a few hours), they prefer not to make any further comments or give rise to “speculation”. Robles, they say, is “concentrated on her work” and does not she feels “questioned” neither by Sánchez, with whom she has a “magnificent relationship”, nor by the citizens.

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Despite the fact that the conflict with the Republicans has worsened, the Government persists in the conviction that “the legislature is not in danger, in any case”, so Sánchez will be able to finish his term when he planned, in December 2023. The president’s team maintain that he will achieve it even without ERC, because the Aragonès party “he has not been in the most important votes either on the side of the Executive.” And they cite several examples: he abstained in the investiture (but it was essential for it to prosper), he voted against several extensions of the state of alarmagainst the decree of European funds —which saved Vox—, against the labor reform —standing thanks to a mistake by a PP deputy—, and against the shock plan in response to the war —the aid came from EH Bildu—.

“ERC always looks at Junts in the rearview mirror. But this conflict is not going well for them either,” they say in Moncloa

In the Government they emphasize that until now all their initiatives have gone ahead (the exception was the decree law of remnants of the municipalities), with different combinations, so that ERC is not totally “essential” for Sánchez. But the contribution of the Republicans goes beyond their 13 seats in Congress, since they direct the Generalitat and Sánchez defends dialogue as one of the pillars of his investiture. “What do we have wear? Yes, but more wear has to lose votes“, they answer in the Executive. The concern is obvious, but the alarm lights are not yet on. And they send this notice to ERC: “Always look at Junts in the rearview mirror. But this conflict is not going well for them either.”



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