Antonio Franco 16/07/2020
The President of Catalan Parliament erred in frontally accusing the Pedro Sánchez government of telephone espionage without having the slightest evidence
Of course I am one of those who fear that the Spanish Government has intervened in the phone espionage of Roger Torrent, the second authority of Catalonia. I live in the country of the negotiating commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and the lax ex-minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz; such action may have been done in an uncontrolled way for the profit of the police mafia or – what would be worse – from a maddened official hierarchy. It would be very serious. I support scrupulous parliamentary inquiry despite my pessimism about clarifying the truth.
But I am disappointed by Torrent’s reaction. Those of us who heard his complaint understood without the slightest ambiguity that he frontally accused the Pedro Sánchez government of what had happened despite not having the slightest proof. He had the right to express suspicion but not to make an accusation like the one he made. I understand that, politically speaking, moving the analysis of the disasters of the Catalan Administration in Lleida and what may happen in Barcelona for a day in the news can be very tempting. But even then the ‘president’ of the Parliament has no right to exceed himself. At his level of responsibility, serious accusations are accompanied by serious data and indications, and Torrent knows that the Spanish Government is only one among various suspects. There is a lot of espionage. We know that Vladimir Putin intervened in the North American presidential elections, we know that several governments and international secret services consider the destabilization of Spain and Catalonia strategic … If there is an uncontrolled Pegasus spy program, neither Torrent nor anyone can rule out that the crime does not proceed, even , from a simple pulse -or from a steady pulse in Waterloo and Barcelona- of the broad Catalan independentist family.
The policy of this country must return to seriousness, precision and responsibility. Making a suspicion is not the same as making an accusation of authorship. I personally am not a Torrent voter but I appreciate many of his performances and I count on him for the future of responsibilities in Catalonia. So this mistake tastes bad to me. I will say more: if Quim Torra had committed it, I would have been less bothered by the little I already expect from him. I want this case to be clarified, but the most important thing is that we rebuild our collective sanity.
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