Until now it was known that the National Intelligence Center (CNI) had tapped the phone of the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, when he was vice president and, to do so, he managed a judicial authorization. Since this Thursday, one of the reasons he argued before the judge for get authorization. As EL PERIÓDICO has learned, the CNI requested the puncture arguing that Aragonès directed the actions of the Defense Committees of the Republic (CDR) and that he did it from “secrecy” despite the fact that he was already the second authority in the Government. In the Generalitat they do not give credit. Sources from the Catalan executive consider that the CNI’s justifications for tapping the phone are “outside of all reality”. “They are inventions. It is totally implausible,” they criticize.
When it broke out in April 2022 the Pegasus case of espionage on some sixty independentists, the then head of the CNI, Paz Esteban, ended up appearing before the Commission on Official Secrets of Congress. There he tried to justify that at least 18 of the 60 people spied on were done so with judicial authorization. The most striking of those names was that of the president of the Generalitat. Almost two years after the explanations of the now former head of the spy services – she was dismissed five days after that appearance – what they argued before the judge comes to light to get the punctures.
One of the underlying arguments is that Aragonès was the one who directed the actions of the CDR and that the margin of its institutional role. That is to say, there was an Aragonès by day who acted as vice president of the Government of Quim Torra, and an Aragonès at night who served as the top person in charge of the activists. In the request to the judge it was specified that intervention was not requested as vice presidentbut for the “direction and coordination work of the CDRs.”
Aragonès became vice president of the Government in June 2018 when his party, ERC, had already begun to turn, leaving behind unilateralism to bet on dialogue with the State. In fact, he himself reported before the judge that he was spied on when he negotiated with the PSOE the first investiture of Pedro Sanchez that Esquerra supported. At that time, for ERC the activity of the CDR was more of an inconvenience than a reason for vindication. While the CDRs They were trying to keep up the fight in defense of the unilateral path, the Republicans had already begun to change their strategy. In the fall of 2018, these Committees for the Defense of the Republic even called for protests and painted graffiti at the same Esquerra headquarters.
From the Palau de la Generalitat They considered from the beginning that the wiretapping It was unjustified but, now that they have known the arguments that were presented before the judge, it has increased even more indignation and perplexity. The Government considers it obvious that Aragonès could not direct the CDR and regrets that the motives of the espionage services have no meaning. no foundation.
The documentation
The first details of the Aragonès puncture have begun to emerge since a judge forced the declassification of part of the documentation of the case held by the CNI. The judge of Barcelona Santiago García García, that investigates the espionage of the president, received this Thursday the three resolutions of the magistrate of the Pablo Lucas Supreme Court that have been declassified by the Government of Pedro Sanchez. The arrival of these documents occurs 24 hours before the former director of the CNI, Paz Esteban.
The Generalitat also has this documentation as an affected party in the process. From the Plaza Sant Jaume they prefer not to comment on it in the background because they defend that it is time to study it. However, it does have criticisms about the shape. After taking a first look at it, they consider it to be documentation totally insufficient. Government sources consulted by EL PERIÓDICO assure that they are documents full of “removed parts”. That is, parts covered for an alleged reason of confidentiality. “It is impossible to understand the meaning of many paragraphs. There are entire pages crossed out,” they say.
The Government defends itself
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The person responsible for the declassification is the Government of Pedro de Sánchez, political leader of the CNI. In this whole matter, the role of the socialist government has been difficult to calibrate. On the one hand, the independence movement accused him of being behind espionage – along with the PP, which was in Moncloa until 2018-, but on the other hand, it was shown that socialist ministers and even the president of the Government were also spied on with Pegasus.
Government sources They have defended their role in this whole matter. Firstly, they argue that these CNI operations began “before” Sánchez’s arrival at the Moncloa and that neither the intelligence services nor the Supreme Court have to inform the Executive of your decisions. Secondly, the same sources try to compare what the PP did before with what the PSOE does now. “Now there is transparency. With the PP there was a dirty war and parallel police forces,” maintain the same sources. Finally, they also defend that the declassification has been done with “the limit of National security“and at the request of a judge. This Friday the former head of the CNI, Paz Esteban, is summoned before this judge to shed some light.