Spain is not only a country of superlatives in terms of corruption and the unhindered continuation of fascist structures: now «CatalanGate» (or rather «SpainGate»?) is added to the list!

As the U.S. weekly magazine The New Yorker reports in its cover story of 18. 4. 2022, no group in the entire world has been spied on as intensively with the Pegasus spy programme as high-ranking Catalans who advocate the independence of their country from Spain in the form of an independent republic peacefully and in accordance with the fundamental human right to self-determination.

At least three former heads of state of Catalonia — the presidents Artur Mas, Quim Torra and Carles Puigdemont — as well as the current president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Aragonès, have been spied on and monitored using the Israeli-originated spying programme, which is only sold to states.

Since Carles Puigdemont, President of the Catalan government-in-exile of the Consell per la República («Council for the Republic»), is also a Member of the European Parliament and in this capacity a member of a parliamentary committee dealing with the use of the Pegasus spying programme in Europe, the spying attack was also directed against the European Parliament itself. Other MEPs (Prof. Dr. Clara Ponsatí and Toni Comín) were also illegally spied on. This cannot and will not remain without consequences!

Citizen Lab (Toronto) has meanwhile already located over sixty people from Catalonia who have been spied on. As things stand, 63 people have been attacked with Pegasus, another four with Candiru (‛Devil's Tongue') and another two with both programmes.

«The Citizen Lab is not conclusively attributing the operations to a specific entity, but strong circumstantial evidence suggests a nexus with Spanish authorities.»

Among the victims are not only Catalan presidents and MEPs, but also two Catalan parliamentary presidents (Laura Borràs and Roger Torrent), Catalan MPs, lawyers (including the well-known lawyers Gonzalo Boye, who represents, among others, President Carles Puigdemont, and Andreu Van den Eynde, who represents the ‛pardoned' political prisoner and legitimate Catalan vice president Dr. Oriol Junqueras, whom Spain unlawfully denied his seat in the European Parliament, and Prof. Dr. Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas) and members of Catalan civil society associations (Marcel Mauri, ex-vice-president of Òmnium Cultural, Elisenda Paluzie, ex-president of the ANC, and the ‛pardoned' political prisoner Jordi Sànchez) or, even more perfidiously, even their relatives (e.g. Txell Bonet, the wife of the 'pardoned' political prisoner Jordi Cuixart, ex-president of Òmnium Cultural).

If Spain is indeed responsible for these serious crimes — and according to Citizen Lab everything seems to point to this —, this cannot remain without consequences within the framework of the EU.

Unfortunately, however, the same is still true: Europe remains silent and looks away.