The Ministry of the Interior justifies the "illegal infiltrations" of police officers in youth organizations of the Catalan independence movement based on the National Strategy against Terriorism, as stated in the response given by the department headed by Fernando Grande Marlaska to the administrative dispute filed by Òmnium Cultural before the National High Court at the end of July for the infiltration of the Student Union of the Catalan Countries (SEPC) and Jovent Republicà.
In the document from the Ministry of the Interior, to which La Vanguardia has had access, it is considered "legitimate, suitable and timely" to infiltrate agents in youth movements to capture information and links it with the usual practices in the prevention of terrorism based on of alleged violent actions and strategies of the independence movement.
"People who belong to the independentist associative world, encompassing a wide range of associations, contribute to the illegal achievement of the independence of Catalonia, in some cases carrying out radical-violent actions within the framework of the global secessionist strategy," he explains. Interior in the document, which relates the means and techniques used with the current National Strategy against Terrorism, published in 2019.
The National Strategy against Terrorism, recalls the text of the Interior, dedicates its chapter 2 to the threat of terrorism and violent extremism, and quotes verbatim that "exclusive dental extremism that can lead to violence and be increased in an environment of economic crisis , constitute one of the worrying notes at present.Thus, the rise of extremism and exclusionary positions that are being generated in a large part of the developed countries, in Europe in particular, are giving rise to violent and philo-terrorist dynamics between sectors minorities in our society that we must pay attention to".
Likewise, the document also alleges the National Security Strategy in which it calls for "strengthening prevention capabilities in the fight against terrorism of activities linked to terrorism and violent extremism, especially on the Internet and social networks."
All in all, the ministry justifies the "compulsory" use by agents of "supposed identities in order to protect their own and also to avoid detection through a simple public check of their personal data."
The president of Òmnium, Xavier Antich, explained that the entity hopes to exhaust all legal channels in Spain in relation to this case in order to reach international bodies. In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio he has said that these are "extremely serious" events and has added that his will is that the case also be assessed, "if necessary", in the European Court of Human Rights.
In a previous statement, Antich has criticized that "these practices by the ministry of Fernando Grande-Marlaska represent a clear violation of fundamental rights framed in the general cause against the independence movement, where the State acts with total impunity and outside the law".
"There is a State strategy to link the independence movement to terrorism", said Antich, for whom "the State invents false violence because it is incapable of democratically facing the Catalan political conflict, and applies measures typical of the fight against terrorism against a movement democratic and peaceful as is the independence movement”.
"It is very serious that, in order to justify flagrant violations of rights such as infiltrating youth organizations, a supposedly democratic State invents non-existent violent practices", he added.
One of the organizations affected by police infiltration, the Sindicat d'Estudiants dels Països Catalans (SEPC) has lamented in a statement with Alerta Solidària that the State "insists on presenting Catalan society immersed in a framework of unbearable tension and serious violence" and that "twists" reality to protect the use of "all kinds of repressive mechanisms, harmful to fundamental rights" that are only envisaged "in the fight against terrorism."
In the same statement, the two platforms see the Interior's response as a "true official declaration of war" against the Catalan independence movement, before which there are only two possibilities, in their opinion: "either surrender, or resign ourselves". The SEPC and Alerta Solidària conclude that "there is nothing more to talk about with the State" and that it is necessary to "organize and fight".
