The parliamentary groups of ERC, Bildu and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) registered yesterday in Congress the request for the constitution of the third commission of inquiry committed to the pro-independence pacts with the socialist party.
Its spokesman, Patxi López, assured that this group will support the creation of the three commissions, but warned that its objective will be to evaluate the work of successive governments and not that of judges.
The commission proposed yesterday by ERC, Bildu and BNG must investigate the use of Pegasus and Candiru, two intrusive programs to listen and capture the contents of mobile phones, against political opponents.
Among the alleged victims of this espionage, there is the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and also other pro-independence militants.
This commission is added to those proposed last week by Junts and PNB jointly to investigate Operation Catalunya and the one related to the attack that took place in Catalonia on August 17.
When the Courts were constituted, after the elections of July 23, Junts and ERC agreed with the socialist group to appoint Francina Armengol as president of the Chamber in exchange for some concessions, which included the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician in Congress and the constitution of three research commissions. They are the ones that have now registered with the support of the other allies of the investiture.
But in the agreement that months later the PSOE and Junts signed to guarantee the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, it was specified that in these commissions the existence of cases of lawfare could be assessed, that is, a use of justice against of the political opponent.
Junts had a special interest at this point to ensure some option to extend the scope of the amnesty to some cases outside the bill that they were negotiating in parallel.
Some pro-independence militants – although not all – consider that convictions like the one suffered by Laura Borràs or procedures like the one affecting Carles Puigdemont's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, could fit into this accusation of judicial warfare.
This point of the agreement provoked the reaction of all sections of the judicial world - including progressive magistrates - who interpreted that what was intended in this point of the agreement was to evaluate the work done by judges and prosecutors that have intervened in the causes of the process.
For these lawyers, this point implies a break in the separation of powers. The opposition interpreted it in the same way.
Hence, the precision made yesterday by the spokesperson of the socialist group, Patxi López, when he assured that these commissions will investigate the actions of successive governments - Operation Catalonia was the responsibility of the PP, but the intrusions with Pegasus have already happened under the Government of Pedro Sánchez – but that in no case will they focus on the actions of the judges and their sentences.
The question now is to know, then, whether this position of the PSOE will cause any reaction on the part of the pro-independence parties, in particular Junts, who was precisely the one who pushed for the inclusion of the allusion to the judicial war in the signed investiture pact with the socialist party.
