Yesterday, Pedro Sánchez submitted to the debate and analysis of the Council of Ministers the journalistic revelations - the result of the investigation by La Vanguardia and Eldiario.es - on the use of the resources of the State during the mandates of Mariano Rajoy to persecute the Catalan independence movement. For the President of the Government, this is “a very serious event”, to which he wants to give maximum political relevance. And sources from the Executive recognize that there was “a lot of interest” among the members of the Council of Ministers to address an issue that, in the opinion of the minister spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, is “enormously serious.”
Sánchez thus puts Rajoy in the pillory, determined to clarify “to the last consequences” the alleged irregular maneuvers of his predecessor, since the Government opened the door, wide, to force the appearance of the former president in the investigation commission of Congress on the Catalunya operation. Executive and PSOE simultaneously direct the focus and pressure of political responsibility against the current leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whom they reproach for his “cloakful silence” in the face of these journalistic revelations.
At Moncloa they connect Rajoy's behavior as head of the Executive with Feijóo's attitude, now, as leader of the opposition. “The serious thing here is the way the PP acts. When they are in government, they use all the levers of the rule of law to spy on and persecute their political opponents. And when they are in the opposition, they propose outlawing all political parties that do not think like them,” Alegría highlighted. “They are embarrassing and shameful behaviors,” she added.
The minister spokesperson encouraged Rajoy to appear in the investigative commission on the Catalunya operation in Congress, in line with the demands of Junts and ERC. “It is essential that everything is known and clarified. Therefore, we must not rule out the appearance of any member of the previous PP administration,” Alegría stated.
The spokesperson for the Government of the Generalitat, Patrícia Plaja, spoke in the same vein regarding the information that Rajoy was aware of the commission of “crimes by the police.” “If Rajoy knew about it and did not prevent it, it means that he endorsed it,” said Plaja. The former president, she decided, “must be summoned” to the investigative commission.
“The facts that we are learning about are extremely serious, and we are going to reach the ultimate consequences, analyzing even the smallest detail of all the documentation,” the minister spokesperson stressed, echoing Sánchez's decision.
In Moncloa they limit the action, at least for now, to the investigation carried out by the parliamentary commission and highlight that the new journalistic revelations "demonstrate the opportunity" that it has been established in this new legislature, at the request of Junts and the PNV.
In addition to targeting Rajoy, the Government also raises its target against Feijóo. “Faced with the knowledge of the seriousness of these events, the absolute silence of Feijóo and the PP is too evident, a clamorous silence,” Alegría stressed. “We hope and hope that the PP, and especially Feijóo, will give explanations,” she warned.
In coherence with this position, the Council of Ministers yesterday approved the partial declassification of secret documentation from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) on the telephone tap suffered by the current president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, through the Pegasus spy program. The events date back to 2018 and 2020, already under Sánchez's mandate – who was also the subject of telephone interventions, like other ministers, of unknown origin –, when Aragonès was vice president.
“The main interest in clarifying this issue is the Government,” Alegría alleged, to justify compliance with the request that Judge Santiago García – head of the investigating court number 29 of Barcelona – transferred in November, who is investigating the case as a result of the complaint filed by Aragonès himself.
This controversy already cost the then director of the CNI, Paz Esteban, her position in May 2022, who is pending her appearance as an investigator before the judge on January 26. Alegría warned that the partial declassification of reserved documents, “for this specific lawsuit” and at the request of a court, “in no case affects national security.”
“What does affect national security – he insisted – is the way of acting of the PP, which when it is in government uses the resources of the State to persecute its political opponents and when it is in the opposition it wants to outlaw those who do not think like them".
