Two years after giving the first signal of alarm about possible espionage to the then president of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, and other pro-independence supporters, the Catalan government has returned that complaint and ensured that cell phones ng at least 65 politicians and activists of Catalan and Basque separatism were detected through a program to which only governments and their intelligence services have access.

The scandal was revealed through an investigation by Citizen Lab, the cybersecurity institute of the University of Toronto, in Canada, and pushed the previously anemic relationship maintained by the coalition government of Social Democrat Pedro Sánchez with the president of the Generalitat. Catalan, the sovereign Pere Aragonès.

“We want to know if the Spanish government participated in this espionage,” said Aragonès, who on Thursday traveled from Barcelona to Madrid to meet with parliamentary groups and ask for the creation of an investigative commission in Congress.

Aragonès also questioned the continued pro-independence support for Pedro Sánchez who, without the votes of the Catalans and Basques, would be on the tight ropes to pass laws in Parliament until next year’s elections. .

Does the new acrimonial between Catalan nationalism and the coalition government put the current Legislature in jeopardy?

“This Legislature has been amortized. It will not have more consequences than those that will be seen -he told Clarion the Spanish political scientist Fernando Vallespín. If the budget is not approved this year, the current one is extended. In 2023 there will be a general election. “

“I don’t think it will serve to overthrow the Sánchez government. Everyone knows that secret services, almost by definition, as the term also says, can’t be transparent, right? What he (Aragonès) wants is for someone to have responsibility. Let the Minister of Defense or the Minister of the Interior fall and, I think, the whole thing is reset, ”added Vallespín, who is also a professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Government defense

The Spanish government ensures that it does not commit anything illegal and defends the role of the National Intelligence Council (CNI).

The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, assured that the government and the CNI “always act in accordance with the law enforced in Spain” and, on the other hand, “the CNI has legal limitations and that is all it refers to. in CNI is secret ”.

The Catalan president requested a meeting soon with Sánchez, who on Thursday traveled to kyiv to meet with Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenski, to whom he pledged 200 tons of weapons to fight Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, largest dispatch of military aid made by Spain.

the pegasus program

Ang Catalangatesince this alleged mass espionage has been called, would have been carried out thanks to the skills of Pegasus, a spyware program designed by the Israeli company NSO Group, which manages to infiltrate other people’s cell phones and is also heard in Argentina. .

Is about a program to which only states and security forces have access of countries to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and other serious crimes.

Pegasus allows tapping on calls, reading e-mails, exposing the geolocation of the person being spied on in real time. Even turn on the microphone or camera remotely, which will also provide access to collect information from meetings or conversations.

In the middle of last year, a joint investigation between media group Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International revealed that Pegasus had hacked 50,000 cell phones of politicians, journalists and activists around the world.

In the case of Catalan espionage, the hook could be emails from NGOs or allegedly secure links that, when clicked, would open doors to the privacy of the cell phones being spied on.

Force

Among those hacked were important names within the Catalan freedom movement such as former presidents Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and Artur Mas.

The current Catalan who governs the Palau de la Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, the former president of Parliament, Roger Torrent, and the current president, Laura Borràs, among others.

On Thursday, Borrás called for the “destruction of relations” between the Generalitat and Moncloa. “How can you have a dialogue with someone who is spying on you? Whoever is spying on you obviously doesn’t want to talk, because the spy is just the opposite, ”said Borràs.

In Madrid, the Catalan president, supported even by partners of the United We Can government, requested that Pedro Sánchez respond: “Explanations are needed here and therefore transparency and assumption of responsibilities because, ultimately, the citizens and the representatives of citizenship in a democracy we need to protect our rights. And so far they are not, “he said.

“The government is hiding nothing,” replied Moncloa spokeswoman and Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez. There will be transparency and collaboration from the Spanish government on the relevant roads and channels. ”

Madrid. Correspondent

CB