1st press release (14. 5. 2022):
Press release CCF-2022-001
First Press release of the Delegation for Foreign Affairs of the Catalan Council in Frankfurt am Main (14. 5. 2022)
According to a report in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo of 12 May 2022, the Spanish secret service CNI justifies the surveillance of the mobile phones of leading members of the Catalan sovereignty movement by means of at least one spying programme with the claim that this is the only way to prevent the secession of Catalonia from Spain.
https://www.elmundo.es/espana/2022/05/12/627d4f5cfc6c83ed0e8b4596.html
Judge Pablo Lucas of the Supreme Court in Madrid is reported to have admitted that in 2019 the use of the illegal Pegasus spying programme against the mobile phones of 18 Catalans was judicially authorised. However, the number of people intercepted — including MEPs — is much higher, according to Citizen Lab. Candiru's 'Devil's Tongue' programme is also said to have been used.
The Spanish secret service CNI, whose director Paz Esteban has already lost her office because of the Catalangate scandal, has spied on senators and deputies, lawyers and party functionaries and their contacts, among others. The Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, living in exile after his illegal removal by Spain — which violated organic law of the Spanish state — was also bugged by the Spanish secret service, as was the current Catalan president Pere Aragonès.
An imminent end to the term of office of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is becoming increasingly likely due to the biggest wiretapping scandal in the European Union to date. Meanwhile, Catalangate is making ever bigger waves in the international press.
https://www.ft.com/content/b16730f3-3d60-4515-96ca-a8742487e851
https://atlanticsentinel.com/2022/05/what-conservative-spain-has-in-common-with-putin/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/25/how-democracies-spy-on-their-citizens
The Catalan president-in-exile Carles Puigdemont commented on the current events on Twitter as follows:
«A democracy does not spy on political dissidents, even if their victory would lead to profound changes. The Constitutional Court considers that the sovereignty movement is an option in accordance with the law; but the government considers that it is necessary to spy to prevent this legitimate option.»
«If you want to prevent a democratic project, however revolutionary it is, you have to do it by democratic means, by winning elections or referendums. Anything else is attitudes that are incompatible with democracy.» (Carles Puigdemont, MEP).
2nd press release (14. 5. 2022):
Press release CCF-2022-002
Spain's Supreme Court allowed intelligence agency to spy on Carles Puigdemont's lawyer
According to a report in the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia on 14. 5. 2022, Spain's Supreme Court allegedly gave permission on several occasions to spy on a lawyer when he was representing clients before the Spanish Supreme Court itself as well as before the European Court of Justice. However, this is strictly prohibited by both Spanish and mandatory international law.
So far, in the biggest international espionage scandal since Watergate, Catalangate, which also directly affects the European Parliament, only 18 cases of the 65 cases of illegal espionage with the programmes Pegasus and Candiru uncovered by Citizen Lab (University of Toronto) have been confirmed by Spain. Among them is the lawyer Gonzalo Boye, who represents the Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont (MEP) and other prominent Catalans before Spanish and European courts.
Pablo Lucas is the Spanish Supreme Court judge responsible for the illegal espionage by the Spanish secret service CNI. He authorised periods of three months in each case. As La Vanguardia reports, seven or eight other people seem to be affected by this authorisation, whom Citizen Lab has not yet identified.
According to Paz Esteban, the intelligence director, who has since been deposed, the Spanish intelligence service allegedly failed to infect the mobile phones of the people on the list in four cases. She admitted that Spain had the Pegasus spy programme, which originated in Israel.
https://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20220514/8266136/18-espiados-cni-pegasus.html
According to Citizen Lab's investigations, lawyers Andreu Van den Eynde, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas and Oriol Sagrera are also said to have been spied on with Pegasus. However, the responsible Spanish authorities have not yet admitted this.
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/suprem-autoritzar-espionatge-boye-suplicatori/
President Carles Puigdemont, under whose leadership the structures of the Catalan Republic are currently being set up outside Spain, commented on the spying on his lawyer on Twitter as follows:
«I think that the weight of this news has not yet been understood. In any case, it is very serious. They admit that they spied on us while we were preparing our political and legal defence before the European Parliament; the Stasi or the Securitate would have done it no differently. And they actually still justify that?» (President Carles Puigdemont, MEP on 14. 5. 2022).
3rd press release (14. 5. 2022):
Press Release CCF-2022-003
Catalan government-in-exile presents its government programme — Establishment of an independent legal system of the Catalan Republic and diplomatic representations abroad
The construction of the administrative and judicial structures of the Catalan Republic, coordinated by the Catalan government-in-exile abroad, is taking shape. After President Puigdemont and Vice-President Toni Comín presented the first nine foreign representatives in Brussels on 7 May 2022, 25 projects were announced on 14 May 2022, also in Brussels, as part of the government's telematically presented programme, including the creation of a ‘mediation organ’ from which the legal institutions of the Catalan Republic will evolve.
President Carles Puigdemont told the Assembly of Delegates of the Catalan Council that now that the founding phase has been completed, the new governmental plan is ready to be implemented step by step.
The Parliament of Catalonia declared Catalonia's independence from Spain on 27 October 2017, in accordance with the Spanish Constitution and the United Nations Human Rights Covenants. This declaration did not violate international law and is valid. Since Spain, in constant and massive violation of the Catalan people's human right to self-determination and to that extent also in breach of its own constitution, which incorporates this right as a mandatory right, has so far been unwilling to engage in dialogue with the representatives of the Catalan people in order to jointly negotiate the modalities of Catalonia's separation from Spain, the establishment of the Catalan Republic must and will initially be prepared from abroad. The establishment of independent state structures of the Catalan Republic has already begun under the leadership of President Carles Puigdemont.
https://www.elnacional.cat/ca/politica/consell-republica-presenta-pla-govern_757161_102.html
https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/consell-republica-poder-judicial-republica-catalana/
https://consellrepublica.cat/home_eng/