Pedro Sánchez’s explanations for the Pegasus case are far from satisfying the Catalan independence movement, whose spokespersons in Congress have expressed their outrage at the lack of answers and the “milonga” that the Prime Minister has told them. Among them is his parliamentary partner, ERC, which has led the criticism against Sánchez’s attitude because the latter has exclusively placed the responsibilities on the CNI or because he has now announced greater control over it when “the biggest controller and the person in charge” of the espionage service is, he stressed, “the President of the Government, that is, you”.
Gabriel Rufián has stressed that those spied on with a court order all share the same characteristic: “their ideology”. ERC has urged Sánchez to clarify why he spied on the current president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and if he considers that he is someone as dangerous as a drug trafficker or a jihadist.
The ERC spokesman has also summoned him to clarify the case of the 47 people included in the Citizen Lab list and whose alleged espionage has not been motivated by judicial authorization. “In a country where the main law is the law of silence, it is not a country, it is a mafia”, he has said in this regard.
In this sense, he has questioned whether Spain has “cleaned the sewers” of the State and has described the attitude of the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, insisting on her defense of the CNI as “toxic patriotism”.
The ERC spokesman reminded Sánchez that “power can never be above morality, that a State and a Government cannot have a parallel life, that a country in which there is a law of silence is a mafia and that the only way for Spain to be a full democracy is to be aware that it is not”.
Rufián has reproached Sánchez for not being able to “whitewash” his government “in the face of everything that has happened” and has lamented that after listening to him “today the right people are fewer and weaker.”
Junts per Catalunya has wondered “what Sánchez has come to Congress to do” because he has not given any explanations or assumed responsibilities for the Pegasus eavesdropping. “It is thought that many of us are stupid here,” Miriam Nogueras has reproached him.
The Junts spokesperson replied to Sánchez that “the political guidelines, the objectives, are marked, approved and signed by the President of the Government of the Spanish State, which is you” and what has happened, in her opinion, is that has spied on a political adversary.
In a defiant tone, Nogueras has assured that “the anesthesia that they plugged into all Catalans is losing its effect” and has ventured that “Catalonia will go out on the streets again and will return to finish off the work we started in 2017”.
For his part, the representative of the PDeCAT, Ferrán Bel, one of those spied on with Pegasus and without judicial authorization, has made the president ugly by his attempt to direct blame towards the PP, trying to shake off the responsibilities and dilute them by talking about the corruption of the PP.
Bel has insisted on the creation of a parliamentary investigation commission and has urged Sánchez to commit to a real dialogue table with the Generalitat, which goes beyond “the photo”.
The CUP has also charged harshly against the president. His spokesperson, Mireia Vehí, has asked Sánchez several times “for how many rights is the unity of Spain exchanged” and has warned that the independentists “we will do it again”.
EH Bildu has accused Sánchez of “using the same tactics as before against political opponents”, but with the “aggravating factor” that now those being spied on are precisely those who collaborate with the Government. “We support you and you spy on us”, Mertxe Aizpurua has reproached him.
The spokeswoman for the abertzale formation has emphasized the cases of unjustified espionage with judicial authorization and has asked the president to clarify them to prevent the “discredit” of the Government “from being even greater”. For Bildu, the reform of the Official Secrets Law and the law that regulates the CNI is a good idea, but “it is not enough.”
Aizpurua has demanded the parliamentary investigation commission but has assumed that the Government will not accept it for “fear” that the “deep state” will be uncovered. “You cannot ask for responsibility and not offer it back”, warned the abertzale spokeswoman before asking Sánchez for “courage” to investigate the scandal and “take care of the investiture bloc” against the “reactionary agenda of the right”
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